08.09.2017: Haruo Nakajima & Bin Furuya [Fear FestEvil in 2014]

Bonus episode: The late Haruo Nakajima, aka “Mr. Godzilla”, took part in a panel with Ultraman’s Bin Furuya in 2014 at Kirk Hammet’s Fear FestEvil. (Photo Credit: Loren Portillo) It is with a very heavy heart that I must relay to you all that the actor who portrayed the original Godzilla (and other numerous kaiju), Haruo Nakajima has passed away at the age of 88. Haruo Nakajima played Godzilla from 1954 through 1972’s Godzilla vs. Gigan. He was Toho’s primary kaiju actor and helped bring monsters like Rodan and Varan to life. In his later years he made many appearances at conventions around the world. I was lucky enough to see him at two of those shows. I feel fortunate to have been able to interview Nakajima during 2014’s Fear FestEvil convention in San Francisco, California. If you’d like to hear that brief interview, it’s in episode #104 (and the interview starts around the 11½ minute mark). At that same convention, a panel titled “Oh no! There goes Tokyo!” featured both Haruo Nakajima (the original Godzilla suit actor) and Bin Furuya (the original Ultraman suit actor) and was moderated by Jim Cirronella. The audio is not as great as I’d like, but I’ve always thought about releasing this as a special episode. This seems like the best time to do that since I won’t be able to produce any other episodes featuring this legend of the genre. Rest In Peace, Nakajima-san   MOMENTS OF MONSTER MUSIC: 1. Ending (Godzilla March) by Susumu Ishikawa, Shinichi Sekizawa, Kunio Miyauchi from Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) 2. Another ending by Akira Ifukube from Gojira (1954)