A Facebook page called Celebrity ICONS is reporting that Haruo Nakajima passed away today, at the age of 88. I don’t really know what that organization is – seems to be involved in bringing tokusatsu actors to U.S. conventions – but as major players in the fandom are treating the news with the utmost solemnity, it is clear that the post is authentic.
For twelve movies made over eighteen years, Haruo Nakajima was Godzilla, but he was even more than that. Whenever Eiji Tsuburaya needed a fearless stuntman to hop inside a rubber suit during the golden age of Japanese sci-fi, he answered the call. Rodan, Meganulon, Moguera, Varan, Mothra, Maguma, Matango, Baragon, King Kong, Black Moth, Gezora, Ganimes, seven different Ultra Series villains… enough monsters to fill Ogasawara Island twice over. He made it all look so effortless, even as he was thrown into pools and ditches, set on fire, shot with fireworks, and sweat away countless pounds under the relentless studio lights.
And – though never credited as such – he was a fight choreographer too. Kaiju scripts in those days didn’t describe kaiju battles in detail, only when they took place. When Shinichi Sekizawa wrote King Kong vs. Godzilla, for instance, the details of the vs. were up to Nakajima.
While anyone could guess that Godzilla was really a man in a suit from the day he first stalked across Japanese scenes, Toho didn’t credit Nakajima in the role until the fifth entry in the series, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. But as Akira Takarada, who received first billing on Godzilla, found out on his first day of work, Nakajima was always the star. Imbuing a dinosaur costume with personality isn’t easy. Most people would be lucky to get through the experience without passing out from exhaustion. Nakajima not only persevered, he helped sell Godzilla’s unlikely transformation from scourge to savior. In the character’s first outing, he was dissolved in Tokyo Bay by the only weapon on the planet more powerful than he was, a grim but necessary task. Godzilla vs. Gigan, Nakajima’s last time in the suit, also ends with Godzilla in the sea, but this time he’s got a friend at his side who just helped him save the world from a three-headed dragon, a cyborg chicken, and a race of intelligent cockroaches. And the song, you know the song:
Forty-five years later, Godzilla is flying higher than ever – a Japanese critical darling and Hollywood star set to appear in five more movies by 2020. Nakajima was keeping quite active himself, with a string of appearances at American sci-fi conventions, until age started to catch up with him in recent months. Monsters, of course, live forever. The people who bring them to life are never so lucky.
Fight on, Godzilla. Rest in peace, Mr. Nakajima.
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