Haruo Nakajima

Haruo Nakajima was born on January 1, 1929 in Yamagata, Japan.

He is known for his work on Seven Samurai (1954), Gojira (1954) and Godzilla vs.

Gigan (1972).

Awarded the "Mangled Skyscraper Award" by the Godzilla Society of North America at the G-FEST XV convention in July 2008 in Chicago.

His daughter Sonoe Nakajima accompanied him at Monsterpalooza 2011.

Invented the Godzilla film character from scratch and developed it by going to a zoo to study how elephants and bears moved. He said, "It was important to show the pathos of the creature, which could only smash everything in its way". The theme of his Godzilla was grand and complex, addressing universal human problems, as it spoke to a Japan that still remembered wartime suffering. "If Godzilla can't walk properly, it's nothing but a freak show," he said in a 2014 interview with the Associated Press at his suburban Tokyo apartment, proudly sitting among photos of himself as a young man and Godzilla figures. "It's not some cowboy movie," he said. He recalled that the rubber suit he wore was so hot that the sweat he wrung from his shirt would fill half a bucket. In the original movie, directed by Ishirô Honda with an unforgettable film score by Akira Ifukube, Godzilla surfaces from the Pacific Ocean suddenly, a mutation resulting from nuclear testing in the area. Until recently, Nakajima was a star guest at film festivals and events, He had been scheduled to be featured at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October, 2017. In the 2014 interview, he said, "I am the original, the real thing, My Godzilla was the best".

Was a stuntman when he was approached to take the role of Godzilla. Some fans prefer Nakajima's version over some Hollywood depictions, which they say resemble an evil-looking animal. Although recent "Godzilla" films use computer graphic animations, a Japanese "Godzilla" remake released in 2016 used a human actor, Mansai Nomura, a specialist in the traditional theater of Kyogen. His movements were duplicated on-screen through CGI motion capture technology.