<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> unknown </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $1,300,000 </Td> </Tr> <P> Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 American black - and - white 3D monster horror film from Universal - International, produced by William Alland, directed by Jack Arnold, that stars Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell . The Creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and by Ricou Browning underwater . The film premiered in Detroit on February 12 and was released on a regional basis, opening on various dates . </P> <P> Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in 3D and originally projected by the polarized light method . The audience wore viewers with gray polarizing filters, similar to the viewers most commonly used today . Because the brief 1950s 3D film fad had peaked in mid-1953 and was fading fast in early 1954, many audiences actually saw the film "flat", in 2D . Typically, the film was shown in 3D in large downtown theaters and flat in smaller neighborhood theaters . In 1975 Creature from the Black Lagoon was re-released to theaters in the inferior red - and - blue - glasses anaglyph 3D format, which was also used for a 1980 home video release on Beta and VHS videocassettes . </P>

Who played the original creature from the black lagoon