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.
