News Haruo Nakajima, original suit-actor of Godzilla, dies at age 88

[Kai "the spy"]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/original-godzilla-actor-haruo-nakajima-dies-88-1633933

Suit actor Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla in eleven films from 1954 to 1972, has passed away at the age of 88 years.
Aside from giving us Godzilla, he also appeared in monster roles in movies like "Rodan", "Varan the Unbelievable", "Mothra", "Frankenstein Conquers the World", and "King Kong Escapes", as well as in many episodes of the classic TV series "Ultra Q", "Ultraman", and "UltraSeven".

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[JD]

I just saw this on CBR, very sad news. It sounds like he was a pretty important part of the Kaiju genre, even if most people probably weren't aware of him. I admit, I'd never heard of him until about 5 minutes ago.

 

[Nomad]

Nakajima had a tough job. The suit was heavy and uncomfortable. He lost 20 pounds while doing the first Godzilla. He couldn't see where he was going, and would often take a tumble on set. Explosions regularly went off very close to him; the suit caught fire on more than one occasion. (It was not fireproof.) Although on a certain level I think it would've been intriguing to see a stop-motion Godzilla (as was originally considered), the personality Nakajima brought to the character made suitmation the more memorable option.