By AFP
August 11, 2017 | 4:25
Haruo Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla, Japan’s iconic city-destroying monster in the original 1954 film, has died, film studio Toho announced on Tuesday. He was 88 years old.
In this photo taken on July 19, 2014, Japanese actor Haruo Nakajima speaks behind a golden statue of Godzilla during a Godzilla exhibition in Tokyo. Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla, Japan’s iconic devastating monster in the original 1954 film, has died, Toho Film Studio announced on August 8, 2017. He was 88 years old.STR / JIJI PRESS / AFP
Haruo Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla, Japan’s iconic city-destroying monster in the original 1954 film, has died, film studio Toho announced on Tuesday. He was 88 years old.
Nakajima, who appeared a dozen times as the iconic creature, died of pneumonia on Monday, a spokesperson for the studio that produced the Godzilla films said.
Originally a stuntman, Nakajima, at the age of 25, first took on the role of the giant monster awakened by a hydrogen bomb test to emerge from rough seas and swim to Japan where it crushes Tokyo.
Godzilla, a walking, breathing analogy for nuclear disaster, resonated in Japan. Just nine years earlier, the country had suffered the world’s first, and still only, atomic bombings at the hands of the United States in the closing days of World War II.
The United States also carried out a hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in 1954, exposing a Japanese fishing boat to nuclear fallout, sickening all 23 crew members and ultimately killing the captain. .
Nakajima prepared to play the imaginary creature by visiting a Tokyo zoo for a week to analyze the movements of elephants, bears and gorillas, according to the Toho website.
He said the suit from the original film was too heavy and he could barely walk 10 meters (33 ft). The suit weighed around 100 kilograms (220 pounds), Toho said.
Nakajima also said he “felt a sense of isolation” at first due to the thick rubber used in the suit that he couldn’t pull off without help.
“But I started loving playing Godzilla,” he said.
The franchise has produced 29 films in Japan, according to Toho.
The original film “Gojira” – a Japanese portmanteau of “gorilla” and “kujira” (whale) – was a mega hit, attracting 9.6 million viewers in cinemas.
