In Memoriam Haruo Nakajima (1929-2017)

A horned salute to the man inside the Gojira suit for most of the Showa series of films (from 1954-1972). Nakajima took his work seriously, having studied the movements of large animals in Japanese zoos before striding onscreen as the King of the Monsters in Ishiro Honda’s GOJIRA (1954). The first master of suitmation acting, he had to carefully gauge his movements as they were shot faster than usual so they would appear slower and thus seem to indicate greater mass when the footage was screened at normal 24 fps. Effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya was an expert in filming with miniatures and worked with Nakajima to convince us that huge creatures were menacing Japan’s national landmarks.  

He suffered physical exhaustion and bodily damage through the arduous task of wearing massive monster suits, coming near to being killed through mishaps several times. The stifling heat inside the suits caused him to exude cups full of sweat, often bringing him to the brink of passing out during the takes, however brief. Through all of that, he gave Godzilla a personality, which changed from horrific to humorous and was at times even touching.

And Nakajima was always kind to his legions of fans who would come out to meet him—he often appeared at conventions, giving time to his admirers. He played other monster roles than that of Gojira, and appeared in movies not as a Daikaiju. Starting in samurai films, he even played a bandit in Kurosawa’s classic SEVEN SAMURAI. Haruo Nakajima made an indelible mark in the Japanese genre of tokusatsu—his spirited performances will delight generations to come.

Hail Haruo Nakajima!

—Magus Peter H. Gilmore