1/1/1929 - Yamagata, Japan
Date of Death:
N/A
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1954) - Godzilla
Godzilla Raids Again (1955) - Godzilla
Rodan (1956) - Rodan
The Mysterians (1957) - Moguera
Varan (1958) - Varan
Mothra (1961) - Mothra Larva
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Godzilla
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Godzilla
Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964) - Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965) - Godzilla
Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965) - Baragon
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966) - Godzilla
War of the Gargantuas (1966) - Gaila
Son of Godzilla (1967) - Godzilla
King Kong Escapes (1967) - King Kong
Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Godzilla
Godzilla's Revenge (1969) - Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) - Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) - Godzilla
PLUS MANY MORE!!!
Mr. Nakajima learned how to preform in a kaiju suit from videos of King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949) that Mr. Tsuburaya showed him. Mr. Nakajima could tell which scenes featured a person in a costume, so he was able to learn a few things about playing monsters. Mr. Nakajima aslo studied the movement of animals to learn how to make Godzilla act. He mostly studied large species because smaller species, unlike Godzilla, Rodan, Varan, and so on, move very quickly. So, it wasn't helpful for him to study them.
The original Godzilla suit, which weighed about 220 pounds was very stiff and heavy. Mr. Nakajima could only walk about 30 feet before needing to get out of the very hot costume. The lights in the studio also added to the heat inside the costume, nearly 120 degrees. If that wasn't enough, the high speed filming nearly makes performing unbarrable, but Mr. Nakajima never complained. He has fainted a few times inside the suit, ruining a few expensive miniature sets which had to be rebuilt.
After Godzilla - King of the Monsters was finished filming, Haruo Nakajima went on to play Godzilla again in "Godzilla Raids Again." This time, the Godzilla suit was made to fit Mr. Nakajima and was much lighter than the previous suit. This time Mr. Nakajima had another actor in a kaiju suit to contend with (Kasumi Tezuka played Anguirus). Before, Mr. Nakajima alone was responsible for destroying the miniature buildings that had been constructed for Godzilla - King of the Monsters, but now both Mr. Tezuka and Mr. Nakajima were responsible for destroying the miniatures. So, the battles between Godzilla and Anguirus had to be carefully choreographed.
The final battle between Godzilla and Anguirus was very interesting. Mr. Tezuka, who was the head of the acting division, intended to make Mr. Nakajima drink the muddy water surrounding Osaka castle, so he fought him as fiercely as I he could. At one point, Mr. Tezuka (Anguirus), unexpectedly fell into the moat of the Osaka Castle and nearly drowned, but was quickly saved.
Mr. Nakajima has said that the most difficult aspect of working on Godzilla Raids Again for him was shooting the ending. He had to stand in the middle of the set while a large amount of crushed ice came tumbling down on him. It was very cold and there was also a floor underneath the floor of the set. Someone was standing on the lower floor while the ice was tumbling down on Mr. Nakajima and the floor of the set collapsed due to the ver heavy ice, so both Mr. Nakajima and the other person were buried under crushed ice.
Up next in kaiju films for Mr. Nakajima was Rodan (1956). The production of this movie went rather smoothly, except for one accident. While they were shooting the scene in which Rodan flies over the bridge in Saikai Village in Kyushu, the pulley from which Mr. Nakajima was suspended broke. He fell from a height of twenty-five feet, but the wings of the costume and the water, which was about one and a half feet deep, absorbed much of the impact and Mr. Nakajima wasn't hurt much at all. He also said that playing Rodan was difficult because the legs of birds, unlike those of humans, bend backward.
The next few kaiju films were Varan (1957) and Mothra (1961). The movie Varan, was the movie in which Mr. Nakajima received his most serious injury when they filmed the shot of a truck exploding underneath Varan. Mr. Nakajima's stomach was very badly burned when the explosives went off and had to be rushed to the hospital. The filming of Mothra went rather smoothly, probably due to the fact the Mr. Nakajima was only one of many men inside the Mothra larva suit (another was Kasumi Tezuka).
In 1967, after filming 5 more Godzilla films (Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidrah, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster), Mr. Nakajima went to work on King Kong Escapes, in which he plays Kong. Mr. Nakajima found it difficult to move the way an ape would instead of a man (longer arms). The arms of the King Kong costume were very long, so his hands did not reach those of the costume. He had to grasp onto sticks that were attached to the hands of the costume, but in the battle scenes against Gorosaurus, Mechani Kong, and the giant snake, a second costume with shorter arms was used.
In 1972, after Godzilla vs. Gigan had finished production and 4 more Godzilla movies had been made (Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla's Revenge, and Godzilla vs. Hedorah), Haruo Nakajima decided to retire from kaiju acting. He said it was mainly because of 2 reasons. One, was the death of Eiji Tsuburaya, the other was the fact that he was then 43 and it had become difficult for him to play Godzilla. Since then he has been working at many different jobs and has appeared at numberous Sci-Fi conventions, including G-Con`96 in Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. Nakajima also starred in many non-kaiju movies in the 40's, 50's, and 60's including... Eagle of the Pacific, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, and Invisible Man.
