‘Creature From The Black Lagoon’ Star Julie Adams Dead at 92
Julie Adams, the actress who stood toe-to-toe on the silver screen with both The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Elvis Presley, died early Sunday at the age of 92.
Her son confirmed her death to the media. Her passing was noted by many in the film community, especially those who were fans of her most infamous role, as Kay Lawrence in Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The film, which drew its inspiration from “Beauty and the Beast,” was an attempt to capitalize on the 3D craze, but ended up becoming a horror classic and a cornerstone of the Universal Monster Universe.
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, who was inspired by Creature to do his film The Shape of Water, mourned her passing on Twitter.
The Hollywood Reporter has more on Adams’ career.
In more than six decades in film and on television, Adams also starred with Donald O’Connor in Francis Joins the WACS (1954), played opposite Elvis Presley in Tickle Me (1965) and appeared with Dennis Hopper in The Last Movie (1971) and with John Wayne in McQ (1974).
Fans of Murder, She Wrote know Adams for playing the eccentric realtor Eve Simpson on the long-running Angela Lansbury starrer, and in the early 1970s, she portrayed Jimmy Stewart’s wife in the legendary actor’s first foray into starring on his own series.
As a publicity stunt, Universal Studios once declared her legs “the most perfectly symmetrical in the world” and insured them for $125,000. And in “The Case of the Deadly Verdict,” a 1963 episode of Perry Mason, Adams’ character had the notable distinction of being one of the lawyer’s few clients to be found guilty.
A standout in a series of quickly made Westerns at Paramount, Adams (then billed as Julia Adams) blossomed after she signed with Universal and was showcased in support of such stars as Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory (1951), Stewart in Anthony Mann’s Bend in the River (1952), William Powell in The Treasure of Lost Canyon (1952), Rock Hudson in The Lawless Breed (1953) and Van Heflin in Wings of the Hawk (1953).
Then the actress was offered the role that assured her a place in monster-movie history.
In recent years, Adams even appeared in the genre show LOST, as Amelia, one of the “Others” in the Dharma Initiative.
Our condolences go out to her family and fans.
