It has been one year today since Haruo Nakajima left us. Haruo was the first man to occupy the Godzilla suit and he is one of the founding fathers of the Toho’s Kaiju Franchise.
Other than depicting Godzilla he depicted other Kaiju, such as Gaira (the Green Gargantua) from the movie “The War of the Gargantuas.” While depicting Godzilla Nakajima’s head was firmly situated in the neck of Godzilla while he wore Godzilla’s head as a hat. However, with portraying Gaira the head piece was worn on Nakajuma’s own head. So for the first time in his career in playing giant monsters, his own eyes are used as the eyes of the creature. To me, being able to see his eyes emoting along with more fluid and dynamic motions unencumbered by a bulky suit, allows for a wide range of actions that displays Nakajima’s range of immense talent. For those reasons I single out and honor this as being his best performance.
The rest of the blog entry is courtesy of Wikipedia.
Nakajima (中島 春雄 Nakajima Haruo) (January 1, 1929 – August 7, 2017) Najajima was born in Yamagata, Japan. His first credited role in a motion picture was in the 1952 film Sword for Hire. He began his career as a stunt actor in samurai films, and he acted in a small role in the 1954 film Seven Samurai, portraying a bandit.
Nakajima is best known for portraying Godzilla in twelve consecutive films, starting from the original Godzilla (1954) until Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). He also played various other giant monsters in kaiju films, including Mothra and The War of the Gargantuas, and also appeared in a minor role in the Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai.
He was considered by many to be the best suit actor in the long history of the Godzilla franchise. At the time, Toho’s visual effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya considered him completely invaluable, and he was employed to essay the roles of most of the kaiju (Japanese monsters) during his career as a suit actor. After 24 years, he retired from suit acting upon completion of Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), when the studio cycled him out of their contract actor system, after it split into several subsidiaries in 1970. He stayed employed by Toho for several years, and was reportedly transferred to a job at its bowling alley, located on the now defunct studio lot.
Tonight I think I’ll watch a Showa Era Godzilla in honor of this great actor.
Godzilla Designs 