jpm-boston
02-29-2008, 03:58 PM
Ben Chapman; became part of Hollywood lore in 'Lagoon'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times | February 29, 2008
LOS ANGELES - As an actor, Ben Chapman never landed a star-making role. Far from it. He had small parts in only a few films, including an uncredited bit part in "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki."
But Mr. Chapman nevertheless achieved a degree of movie immortality - and he did it without uttering a word of dialogue or even showing his face.
The 6-foot-5 former Tahitian entertainer and former Marine war hero played the title character in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," the classic 1954 3-D monster movie that developed an enduring cult following.
Mr. Chapman, a retired Honolulu real estate salesman, died Feb. 21 of congestive heart failure at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, said his longtime companion, Merrilee Kazarian. He was 79.
For Mr. Chapman, playing the so-called Gill Man in "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was the role of a lifetime.
"In the big picture, he achieved a small amount of success as an actor, but for baby-boomer 'monster kids,' he was the bomb," Tom Weaver, author of the 1992 book "Creature from the Black Lagoon," said in an interview.
Mr. Chapman, who was briefly a contract player at Universal in the early '50s, always said landing the Creature role was "a matter of being in the right place at the right time."
He was on the studio lot one day, when he was called into a casting director's office.
"They were looking for an imposing creature, and at 6-feet-5, I filled the bill," he told the Palm Beach Post in 2003.
In the film, which stars Richard Carlson and Julie Adams, a scientific expedition venturing along the Amazon River in search of fossils of a legendary prehistoric man-fish unexpectedly encounters a live specimen, who terrorizes them but falls for the expedition's only female (played by Adams).
"The creature suit was a one-piece outfit that zipped down the back with dorsal fins, hands that were gloves, feet that were like boots," Mr. Chapman told the Honolulu Observer several years ago.
"They had me lay on a table, take a complete plaster of Paris mold of my body, then design this costume. I couldn't lose or gain weight, or it wouldn't fit right. The whole experience was like climbing into a large body stocking with creases."
Mr. Chapman told Weaver that he got so hot on the sound stage wearing the costume, which included a large helmetlike head, that someone had to stand by with a water hose to cool him off.
When they were shooting on the back lot, Mr. Chapman said, "I would just stay in the lake to keep cool."
The movie proved to be so successful that Universal made two sequels - "Revenge of the Creature" (1955) and "The Creature Walks Among Us" (1956).
Mr. Chapman, however, did not return to the Creature role in either film.
Mr. Chapman was born in Oakland, Calif., while his Tahitian parents temporarily were living in the United States. After growing up in Tahiti, he returned to California in 1940 and went to school in San Francisco.
A cousin of actor Jon Hall, Mr. Chapman was working as a Tahitian dancer in nightclubs when he was hired to play a bit part in the 1950 MGM musical romance "Pagan Love Song."
Mr. Chapman served in the Marines in the Korean War and received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts.
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times | February 29, 2008
LOS ANGELES - As an actor, Ben Chapman never landed a star-making role. Far from it. He had small parts in only a few films, including an uncredited bit part in "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki."
But Mr. Chapman nevertheless achieved a degree of movie immortality - and he did it without uttering a word of dialogue or even showing his face.
The 6-foot-5 former Tahitian entertainer and former Marine war hero played the title character in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," the classic 1954 3-D monster movie that developed an enduring cult following.
Mr. Chapman, a retired Honolulu real estate salesman, died Feb. 21 of congestive heart failure at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, said his longtime companion, Merrilee Kazarian. He was 79.
For Mr. Chapman, playing the so-called Gill Man in "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was the role of a lifetime.
"In the big picture, he achieved a small amount of success as an actor, but for baby-boomer 'monster kids,' he was the bomb," Tom Weaver, author of the 1992 book "Creature from the Black Lagoon," said in an interview.
Mr. Chapman, who was briefly a contract player at Universal in the early '50s, always said landing the Creature role was "a matter of being in the right place at the right time."
He was on the studio lot one day, when he was called into a casting director's office.
"They were looking for an imposing creature, and at 6-feet-5, I filled the bill," he told the Palm Beach Post in 2003.
In the film, which stars Richard Carlson and Julie Adams, a scientific expedition venturing along the Amazon River in search of fossils of a legendary prehistoric man-fish unexpectedly encounters a live specimen, who terrorizes them but falls for the expedition's only female (played by Adams).
"The creature suit was a one-piece outfit that zipped down the back with dorsal fins, hands that were gloves, feet that were like boots," Mr. Chapman told the Honolulu Observer several years ago.
"They had me lay on a table, take a complete plaster of Paris mold of my body, then design this costume. I couldn't lose or gain weight, or it wouldn't fit right. The whole experience was like climbing into a large body stocking with creases."
Mr. Chapman told Weaver that he got so hot on the sound stage wearing the costume, which included a large helmetlike head, that someone had to stand by with a water hose to cool him off.
When they were shooting on the back lot, Mr. Chapman said, "I would just stay in the lake to keep cool."
The movie proved to be so successful that Universal made two sequels - "Revenge of the Creature" (1955) and "The Creature Walks Among Us" (1956).
Mr. Chapman, however, did not return to the Creature role in either film.
Mr. Chapman was born in Oakland, Calif., while his Tahitian parents temporarily were living in the United States. After growing up in Tahiti, he returned to California in 1940 and went to school in San Francisco.
A cousin of actor Jon Hall, Mr. Chapman was working as a Tahitian dancer in nightclubs when he was hired to play a bit part in the 1950 MGM musical romance "Pagan Love Song."
Mr. Chapman served in the Marines in the Korean War and received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts.
