Ricou Browning (Creature From the Black Lagoon, 1954)
The director, actor, producer, screenwriter, underwater cinematographer and stuntman started out performing in water shows, then in underwater newsreels, and was offered the role of Gill-man, aka The Creature From the Black Lagoon, after a film crew asked him to show them around a location — and then to swim for the camera. He ended up starring in the film’s sequels, as well.
Browning told Florida’s Ocala StarBanner newspaper in 2013 that he could hold his breath underwater for up to four minutes, but only in optimal conditions: “If you’re swimming fast or fighting, you use up a lot of oxygen, and it cuts it down to, at the most, two minutes.”
Browning died in February at the age of 93.
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