BEFORE GODZILLA, BEFORE FREDDY KRUEGER, there was the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It’s 50 years since the eponymous film helped usher in the monster/sci fi/horror genre, and Hollywood is busy doing a remake. But Ben Chapman, the actor who played the big amphibian and rose from the Amazon depths to kidnap a scientist hottie (Julie Adams), has never outgrown his fling with fame. At 75, the retired Honolulu realty exec still pops up at Creaturefests, donning a grouper-lipped mask to sign memorabilia. Creature doings: After hip surgery in Baltimore, he flew home on 9/11 and was diverted to Omaha; interviewed recently with Adams, he was asked if she swam well underwater and replied, “She’s got great lungs on her”; son Ben III is a Marine sergeant in Iraq.
