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Haruo Nakajima

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Haruo Nakajima
Haruo Nakajima with the SoshingekiGoji suit on the set of Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Born January 1, 1929
Sakata, Yamagata, Japan
Died August 7, 2017 (aged 88)
Notable role(s) Godzilla, Haruo Akita, Meganulon, Rodan, Moguera, Varan, Mothra, Maguma, Matango, Baragon, Gaira, King Kong, Griffon, Giant Rat, Bat Man, Gezora, Ganimes, numerous bit parts
First work Shimikin, the King of Cycling (1950)
Notable work Godzilla (1954)
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“
Inside the Godzilla suit, it was very dark, lonely, and isolated. Usually, the person who wears the suit becomes nervous and anxious. During summertime it’s very hot, it can become hell in there. But Mr. Nakajima always persevered. He acted in the suit underwater, he was buried underground, he withstood pyrotechnic explosions… and through it all he was always Godzilla.
„ 

— Teruyoshi Nakano on Haruo Nakajima
“
I already knew I could hardly become a star like Akira Takarada. I didn't have the face for it. At first, I could only become a bit player; and then, I was offered this. For the first time in Japanese film history. And once I was inside Godzilla, I became irreplaceable; it would be possible to replace all of the other actors, but not me. If I didn't get to work because I was sick, none of the staff would be able to do their work. All of this gave me a tremendous sense of pride.
„ 

— Haruo Nakajima

Haruo Nakajima (中島 春雄,   Nakajima Haruo) was a Japanese actor and stuntman, most famous for playing Godzilla in the character's first 12 films from 1954 to 1972. During that time, he appeared in nearly every one of Toho's science-fiction films, either as a monster, an extra, or both. He retired from suit acting in 1972, several years after the death of Eiji Tsuburaya, who was a close friend of Nakajima as well as the special effects director for most of Toho's kaiju films in the Showa era. In 2010, he published an autobiography titled Monster Life: Haruo Nakajima, the Original Godzilla Actor.[1] He passed away on August 7, 2017, at the age of 88. The 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters ends with a dedication to him and director Yoshimitsu Banno.

Biography

Haruo Nakajima served in the Japanese Imperial Navy as a reserve pilot during the Pacific War.[2] He saw combat as a gunner aboard a Mitsubishi G4M bomber, and was present at the funeral of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in Tokyo Bay. Following the war, he struggled to find work; though he worked for a year as a truck driver for the American occupation forces, he was fired after being arrested for speeding. On a whim, he decided to enroll in the International Motion Picture Acting School in 1949. As a student, he was hired by legendary director Akira Kurosawa to portray a detective in a fight scene in Stray Dog. To his disappointment, the scene went unused.[3]

Upon graduation, Nakajima became a contracted actor at Toho who specialized in period action films. He appeared in two more Kurosawa films in the 1950's, Seven Samurai in 1954 and The Hidden Fortress in 1959. However, his true calling would lie in a type of acting without precedent. In 1953, for Eagle of the Pacific, he volunteered to be set on fire during the film's recreation of the Battle of Midway. The stunt impressed the film's director, Ishiro Honda, who likely was the one to recommend Nakajima for the title role in Godzilla, Toho's first monster movie, the following year.

To properly embody a monster awakened by nuclear testing, Nakajima watched special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya's personal copy of King Kong. He also studied the largest animals he could find at the Tokyo Zoo: elephants and gorillas.[4] Though Nakajima was used to working in heavy samurai armor, the Godzilla suit presented unique challenges; provided with little ventilation and working under harsh studio lights, he could only remain inside for three minutes at a time. He also had to adjust his movements to the higher film speeds (72 frames per second) that Tsuburaya mandated to create the illusion of a 50-meters-tall monster.

When Godzilla became a box office success, Nakajima knew that he would soon be offered more monster roles. His job would also expand in the next Godzilla film, Godzilla Raids Again, to include fight choreography. Scripts would often describe monster battles with a single sentence, leaving the rest to him. Such was his reputation that Eiji Tsuburaya hired him as a choreographer for the first two shows in Tsuburaya Productions' Ultra Series, Ultra Q and Ultraman. Nakajima also portrayed several monsters in the Ultra Series, mostly those made from old Toho costumes which he had already worn.

In total, Nakajima played giant monsters in 22 films, including 12 turns as Godzilla. One of his favorite roles was Gaira, the evil green Gargantua from The War of the Gargantuas. The flexibility of the suit, as well as that of his opponent Sanda, allowed him to pattern the fight scenes on professional wrestling. Though the work was often dangerous, especially the underwater scenes which made use of his scuba diving license, he was only injured once, on the set of Varan. The explosives-filled truck which detonates under Varan in the film's climax burned his stomach.[5] Characteristically, he said nothing about it to the crew and kept working.

Nakajima retired from acting in 1972, following the completion of Godzilla vs. Gigan. Despite his retirement, Nakajima remained a consistent supporter of the Godzilla franchise for the next several decades, appearing at conventions and writing an autobiography detailing his work in suitmation. Nakajima also became a close friend of his former costar and eventual successor in the role of Godzilla, Kenpachiro Satsuma. Nakajima passed away on August 7, 2017, at the age of 88.

Selected filmography

Interviewee

Gallery

Videos

Nakajima appearing on He of the Sun
Haruo Nakajima wearing a Godzilla
suit for the last time in 1983
Nakajima instructing GODZILLA (1998) actor Harry Shearer on how to act like Godzilla
SciFi Japan interview
Anime Boston interview
Great Big Story interview

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ In his 2014 book Director of Special Effects: Teruyoshi Nakano, assistant special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano recalled Nakajima playing Maguma during the scene where the monster is surrounded by jet pipes.[21] Nakajima denied ever playing Maguma in his 2010 book Monster Life: Original Godzilla Actor Haruo Nakajima.[22]

References

This is a list of references for Haruo Nakajima. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. ↑ Ishizuka, Daisuke. "Haruo Nakajima Attends Publishing Party for Autobiography Kaiju Jinsei". SciFi Japan. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  2. ↑ Godzilla Speaks: A Conversation with Haruo Nakajima, interview conducted by Michiko Imamura, Ed Godziszewski, and Kumi Takikawa on February 24, 1996
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tanaka 1983, p. 532.
  4. ↑ Great Big Story - The Man Who Was Godzilla
  5. ↑ Interview with David Milner and Guy Tucker (March 1995)
  6. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 5.
  7. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 295.
  9. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 13.
  10. ↑ "Half Human". IshiroHonda.org. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  11. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 23.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Rodan (空の大怪獣ラドン)". Toho. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  13. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 25.
  14. ↑ "The Mysterians (地球防衛軍)". Toho. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  15. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 216.
  16. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 29.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 33.
  18. ↑ DeAgostini Japan 2011, p. 8
  19. ↑ Movie Hidden Treasure Separate Volume: The First Godzilla Research Reader. Yosensha. 24 July 2014. ISBN 978-4800304520.
  20. ↑ "Mothra (モスラ)". Toho. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  21. ↑ Nakano & Someya 2014, pp. 89-90.
  22. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 346.
  23. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 69.
  24. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 71.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Nakajima 2010, p. 312.
  26. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 81.
  27. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 89.
  28. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 95.
  29. ↑ Nollen 2019, p. 241.
  30. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 103.
  31. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 258.
  32. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 262.
  33. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 263.
  34. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 267.
  35. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 268.
  36. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 270.
  37. ↑ Kodansha 1987, p. 179.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Nakajima 2010, p. 272.
  39. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 107.
  40. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 111.
  41. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 276.
  42. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 115.
  43. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 274.
  44. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 119.
  45. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 123.
  46. ↑ "Destroy All Monsters (怪獣総進撃)". Toho. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  47. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 127.
  48. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 129.
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Tanaka 1983, pp. 336–337.
  50. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 133.
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Nakajima 2010, p. 275.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Nakamura et al. 2014, p. 157
  53. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 246.
  54. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 149.
  55. ↑ Motoyama et al. 2012, p. 153.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Nakamura et al. 2014, p. 111
  57. ↑ Nakajima 2010, p. 320.

Bibliography

Actors
 
Actors
Aaron Taylor-Johnson • Akihiko Hirata • Akiji Kobayashi • Akiko Wakabayashi • Akira Kubo • Akira Nakao • Akira Takarada • Al Sapienza • Alexander Skarsgård • Andrew Hughes • Andy Serkis • Arthur "Chico" Lourant • Asuka Shimizu • Ayako Fujitani • Bin Furuya • Charles Barkley • Daigo Kusano • Dan Stevens • David Strathairn • Emi Ito and Yumi Ito • Frankie Sakai • Franz Gruber • Fuyuki Murakami • Goro Mutsumi • Harold Conway • Haruo Suzuki • Hideo Unagami • Hideyo Amamoto • Hiroki Hasegawa • Hiroshi Aramata • Hiroshi Fujioka, • Hiroshi Koizumi • Hiroyuki Kawase • Hiroyuki Watanabe • Hisaya Ito • Ikio Sawamura • Ikuko Mori • Jack Black • Jerry Ito • Jiro Dan • John Goodman • Jun Kunimura • Jun Tazaki • Kathy Horan • Katsuhiko Sasaki • Kazuma Yoneyama • Kazuya Aoyama • Ken Echigo • Ken Uehara • Ken Watanabe • Kenji Sahara • Koichi Ueda • Koji Fujiyama • Koji Uruki • Kojiro Hongo • Kumi Mizuno • Kyle Chandler • Lance Reddick • Mamoru Miyano • Masahiro Takashima • Masaki Shinohara • Masami Nagasawa • Megumi Kobayashi • Megumi Odaka • Millie Bobby Brown • Miwa Sasaki • Momoko Kochi • Nick Adams • Norman England • Osman Yusuf • Peggy Neal • Ralph Jesser • Raymond Burr • Ren Matsuzawa • Rinko Kikuchi • Robert Armstrong • Robert Baldwin • Robert Dunham • Robert Scott Field • Saburo Shinoda • Sally Hawkins • Samuel L. Jackson • Satomi Ishihara • Seiji Onaka • Norihei Miki • Shelley Sweeney • Shiho Fujimura • Shin Kishida • Shin Takuma • Shinobu Nakayama • Shinsuke Kasai • Shiro Sano • Shoichi Hirose • Shoichiro Akaboshi • Shoji Nakayama • Susumu Kurobe • Tadao Takashima • Takashi Shimura • Takehiro Murata • Tao Tsuchiya • Tatsuo Matsumura • Tetsu Nakamura • Thomas Middleditch • Toki Shiozawa • Tokio Okawa • Tom Hiddleston • Tomoko Ai • Tomonori Yazaki • Toru Ibuki • Toru Matoba • Toru Minegishi • Ulf Otsuki • William Ross • Yasuhisa Tsutsumi • Yasuko Sawaguchi • Yoshibumi Tajima • Yoshiko Tanaka • Yoshiro Kitahara • Yoshio Tsuchiya • Yosuke Natsuki • Yu Fujiki • Yukijiro Hotaru • Yukiko Kobayashi • Yumi Shirakawa • Yumiko Shaku • Yuriko Hoshi • Yusuke Kawazu • Zhang Ziyi
 
Suit/mocap actors
Akira Ohashi • Alan Maxson • Andy Serkis • Chikara Hashimoto • Fuminori Ohashi • Haruo Nakajima • Haruya Sakamoto • Haruyoshi Nakamura • Hideto Date • Hirofumi Fukuzawa • Hirofumi Ishigaki • Hiroshi Sekita • Isao Zushi • Jason Liles • Jun Suzuki • Kanta Ina • Katsumi Tezuka • Kazuhiro Yoshida • Kazunari Mori • Kenpachiro Satsuma • Kenya Saitou • Kinichi Kusumi • Koetsu Omiya • Koji Uruki • Kurt Carley • Makoto Ito • Mansai Nomura • Masaki Shinohara • Masao "Little Man Machan" Fukazawa • Minoru Watanabe • Mizuho Yoshida • Motokuni Nakagawa • Naoko Kamio • Naoya Matsumoto • Richard Dorton • Rick Baker • Rie Ota • Ryo Hariya • "Hurricane" Ryu Hariken • Shinji Takagi • Shoichi Hirose • Susumu Utsumi • TJ Storm • Tadaaki Watanabe • Takateru Manabe • Tatsumi Nikamoto • Terry Notary • Teruo Aragaki • Tokio Okawa • Toru Kawai • Toshihiro Ogura • Toshinori Sasaki • Tsugutoshi Komada • Tsutomu Kitagawa • Umenosuke Izumi • Wataru Fukuda • Yumi Kameyama

 
 
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