- Invented the Godzilla film character from scratch and developed it by going to a zoo to study how elephants and bears moved. He said, "It was important to show the pathos of the creature, which could only smash everything in its way". The theme of his Godzilla was grand and complex, addressing universal human problems, as it spoke to a Japan that still remembered wartime suffering. "If Godzilla can't walk properly, it's nothing but a freak show," he said in a 2014 interview with the Associated Press at his suburban Tokyo apartment, proudly sitting among photos of himself as a young man and Godzilla figures. "It's not some cowboy movie," he said. He recalled that the rubber suit he wore was so hot that the sweat he wrung from his shirt would fill half a bucket. In the original movie, directed by Ishirô Honda with an unforgettable film score by Akira Ifukube, Godzilla surfaces from the Pacific Ocean suddenly, a mutation resulting from nuclear testing in the area. Until recently, Nakajima was a star guest at film festivals and events, He had been scheduled to be featured at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October, 2017. In the 2014 interview, he said, "I am the original, the real thing, My Godzilla was the best".
- Suffered numerous injuries playing Godzilla and other monsters, including burns, electric shocks and near-suffocation.
- Was 25 years old when he stomped over miniature bridges and buildings in a rubber suit and gave the world "Godzilla!" in the original Gojira (1954) (aka "Godzilla"), playing the fire-breathing, screeching monster that became Japan's star cultural export and an enduring symbol of the pathos and destruction of the Atomic Age. "Godzilla," which went on to become a mega-franchise and inspired Hollywood spin-offs, struck a chord in postwar Japan, the only nation to suffer atomic bombing, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the US Army Air Force in the closing days of World War II.
- Had a black belt in martial arts.
- Most famous for portraying "Gojira"--aka "Godzilla"--in 12 films, more than any other actor.
- Awarded the "Mangled Skyscraper Award" by the Godzilla Society of North America at the G-FEST XV convention in July 2008 in Chicago.
- His daughter Sonoe Nakajima accompanied him at Monsterpalooza 2011.
- Was a stuntman when he was approached to take the role of Godzilla. Some fans prefer Nakajima's version over some Hollywood depictions, which they say resemble an evil-looking animal. Although recent "Godzilla" films use computer graphic animations, a Japanese "Godzilla" remake released in 2016 used a human actor, Mansai Nomura, a specialist in the traditional theater of Kyogen. His movements were duplicated on-screen through CGI motion capture technology.
- He was cast Kurosawa Akira's Seven Samurai in 1954. Nakajima believed that it was his performance in Seven Samurai that secured him the role in Godzilla that same year.
- For many years, Toho kept secret the techniques used to bring Gojira (Godzilla) to life on the screen. When it was finally reveled in the 1960s, even foreign publications carried the picture of the smiling Nakajima taking a break with the Gojira suit partially off. By the time he passed away in 2017, international news services carried his obituary, most concentrating on his role as the original Godzilla. This coverage surpassed the coverage of the deaths of such Japanese superstars as Toshiro Mifune and even major political figures.
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