How the Gill-Man actor went from the Black Lagoon to Bond and influencing JAWS
A lone female swimmer glides through the water, below the depths her silhouette is being watched as a creature makes its way towards her before it attacks.
This isn't the opening attack on Chrissie Watkins in Steven Spielberg's JAWS (1975), this is the underwater attack from another Universal monster from the water some 21 years earlier in Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954).
Ricou Browning, who played the Creature in those underwater scenes, which if you look very closely JAWS takes many of its visual cues from, has died at the age of 93.
He'd don the Gill-Man costume for both follow ups, Return of the Creature (which has a JAWS 3D vibe with its water park setting) and The Creature Walks Among Us.
“You’ve got city hands, Mr Gill-Man.”
Water would prove to play a dominant part in his career in television and film, with him being the creative force behind Flipper the film and series that followed (Cindy and Sandy from JAWS 3D are huge fans) and he also worked on Seahunt - which also featured almost Matt Hooper Jeff Bridges.
He was also a stuntman on Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which featured a giant mechanical squid created by Bob Mattey, who would years later be coaxed out of retirement to help create Bruce the mechanical great white shark for JAWS.
Browning would also help out in the underwater exploits of James Bond, directing the then ground-breaking underwater actions scene in Thunderball (1965) and return to similar duties on its unofficial remake Never Say Never Again in 1983, both with Sean Connery as 007. Both films would also feature shark sequences.
It's somewhat fitting that Browning's underwater performance would go on to influence some of the shots of the Spielberg shark classic as the homage would come swimming full circle with Browning directing the hilarious chocolate bar in the pool sequence, which spoofs JAWS, for the golfing comedy Caddyshack.
Words by Dean Newman
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