lagoon, where its body sinks into the watery depths. Cast Richard Carlson as Dr. David Reed Julia Adams as Kay Lawrence Richard Denning as Dr. Mark Williams Antonio Moreno as Dr. Carl Maia Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas Whit Bissell as Dr. Edwin Thompson Bernie Gozier as Zee Henry Escalante as Chico Ricou Browning as the Gillman (underwater) Ben Chapman as the Gillman (on land) Production Producer William Alland was attending a 1941 dinner party during the filming of Citizen Kane (in which he played the reporter Thompson) when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon River. Alland wrote story notes titled "The Sea Monster" 10 years later, using Beauty and the Beast as inspiration. In December 1952, Maurice Zimm expanded this into a treatment, which Harry Essex and Arthur Ross rewrote as The Black Lagoon. Following the success of the 3D film House of Wax in 1953, Jack Arnold was hired to direct the film in the same format. The designer of the approved Gill-man was Disney animator Milicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by make-up artist Bud Westmore, who for half a century received sole credit for the creature's conception. Jack Kevan, who worked on The Wizard of Oz (1939) and made prosthetics for amputees during World War II, created the bodysuit, while Chris Mueller Jr. sculpted the head. Ben Chapman portrayed the Gill-man for the majority of the scenes shot at Universal City, California. The on-water scenes were filmed at Park Lake on the Universal back lot. The costume made sitting impossible for Chapman for the 14 hours of each day that he wore it, and it overheated easily. Due to these difficulties, Chapman often stayed in the studio's back-lot lake, frequently requesting to be hosed down. He also could not see very well while wearing the headpiece, which caused him to scrape Julie Adams' head against the wall when carrying her in the grotto scenes. Ricou Browning played the Gill-man in the underwater shots, which were filmed by the second unit in Silver Springs, Florida. While filming underwater, Browning reportedly held his breath for up to four minutes at a time. In a 2013 interview, Browning clarified: "If you're not doing anything at all, four minutes is possible, but not if you're moving in the water. If you're swimming fast or fighting,