Haruo Nakajima, the First Actor to Play Godzilla, Dies at 88
As a contract actor for the Japanese studio Toho, Mr. Nakajima starred in dozens of other monster movies, including "King
Kong Returns," a 1967 Japanese production in which he again played the title character, this time in an ape costume.
Mr. Nakajima was a 25-year-old stunt actor with just four movies to his credit when he was cast in what are perhaps Japan’s two most famous films of
that era: Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece "Seven Samurai," in which he had a bit part, and "Godzilla," both released in 1954.
Godzilla was simply meant to scare people." Mr. Nakajima would eventually put on the heavy rubber monster
costume 12 times from 1954 to 1972 in a series of movies that became an international phenomenon.
New York Times wrote that One might regard him as a symbol of Japanese hate for the destruction
that came out of nowhere and descended upon Hiroshima one pleasant August morn,
8, 2017
Haruo Nakajima, the Japanese actor who played the movie monster Godzilla in a dozen films
and whose booming steps in a 200-pound rubber suit sent the denizens of Tokyo running into cinematic history, died on Monday.
Toho produced 27 more Godzilla films after Mr. Nakajima hung up his rubber suit in 1972.
" Mr. Nakajima said of those early days. that You don’t learn this from a textbook but by doing,