If you ca n’t picture player Haruo Nakajima ’s face , that ’s because his most famous motion picture role had him enshroud inside a demon costume . The Japanese performer — who played movie house ’s most famous reptilian wildcat , Godzilla , in both the 1954 original film and 11 sequels — diedon August 7 , 2017 at the age of 88 from pneumonia , but not before give the man a coup d’oeil of the man beneath the scaly suit .
Nakajima wasbornon January 1 , 1929 , in Yamagata , Japan . As the third of five children , he knewhe would n’t inherit his begetter ’s butcher shop ( which traditionally go to the eldest boy ) , so he enrolled in an acting program at the age of 18 after working for a brief catamenia as a hand truck gadget driver for the occupying Allied force .
Nakajima launched his movie calling by work as a stuntman in samurai movies . His most noted minute part was in Akira Kurosawa ’s renowned 1954 adventure - dramaSeven Samurai , but his big break occurred while filming the 1953 World War II military filmEagle of the Pacific .
The handwriting require Nakajima to jump from a burning plane , and when music director Ishirō Honda encounter him in legal action , " he thought , ' This guy is full of energy , ' " the actor return toGreat Big Storyin March 2017 . “ They come to see me as someone who had gut , and I think that ’s why they wanted me for the role of Godzilla . ”
In the original 1954Godzillafilm , submerged hydrogen bomb examination disturbs an ancient sea creature from its aquatic home ground , and the wildcat proceeds to wreak havoc upon mainland Japan . Since Nakajima initially had no thought what the titular teras would see like or how it would move , he devise for his part in an strange way .
“ I spend 10 day at the zoological garden , ” Nakajimalater recalled , concord to Jonathan Clements ’s bookSchoolgirl Milky Crisis : dangerous undertaking in the Anime and Manga Trade . “ I ’d watch over the way the elephant take the air , the rascal , the Gorilla gorilla , but especially the bear . I used to take two lunches with me . One was mine , and the rest of it I ’d throw to the bears . When one of them snatched it up and shoveled it into his mouth , I ’d watch the path he did it . ”
Not that it was gentle to move in the Godzilla lawsuit . The original costume was made from ready - mixed concrete ( rubber was a scare commodity in post - war Japan ) and reportedly weighed around 220 pounds . It was also suffocatingly red-hot : Nakajima sweatedso much beneath the soundstage ’s bright lights that by day ’s ending he tell he could fill up half a bucketful with sudor wrung from his vest .
WhenGodzillafirst come in movie theatre in 1954 , an anon. Nakajima find out the film from the front row to gauge the audience ’s response . " When the picture was a winner I was so surprised , " he secern Great Big Story . " I was so happy . "
Nakajima starred inGodzillamovies for most of the next two decades . He also look in dozens of other monster movies as a contract bridge player for Nipponese film studio Toho , which make theGodzillafranchise . But after filmingGodzilla vs. Hedorahin 1971 , Nakajima ’s undivided contract bridge was n’t renewed , and he donned the scaly suit just one last time for 1972’sGodzilla vs. Gigan . The actor retired in 1973 , and spend his rest years take care comical con and movie convening , making the occasionalGodzillafilm cameo , and running a Toho - owned mahjong parlor .
Even though Nakajima enjoyed a successful career , he would never experience international fame : " Back then , people did n’t address positively of case actors , " Nakajima told Japanese magazineJosei Sevenin 2014 , agree to Kotaku . " There ’d be rustle buy the farm around that working inside [ a lawsuit ] is not an represent job . "
Yet theGodzillafranchise became a planetary phenomenon . The motion picture ushered in a new era of sci - fi behemoth movies , and after World War II , they serve as a campy — yet tangible — reminder of the dangers of nuclear combat .
As for Nakajima himself , “ there are not a lot of player that you may equate him to , ” Akira Mizuta Lippit , a cinematic artistic production professor at the University of Southern California , toldThe Washington Postafter Nakajima ’s death . “ He , in fact , invented the sort of act that he then perform . In that sense , he ’s dead unique . "
