GRRRRWWWHHLL!

Akira Takarada, City-Stomping Star of Original ‘Godzilla,’ Dead at 87

The Japanese actor appeared at the premiere of his latest film in early March before contracting pneumonia.

The Japanese star of the 1954 original nuclear apocalypse film Godzilla, Akira Takarada, has died of pneumonia at the age of 87, according to the Godzilla franchise. Takarada, who appeared in numerous films in his lengthy career, including one for which he attended the premiere in early March, played a ship captain in the first rendition of the monster flick. He also survived real-life hardships, including being shot in the stomach by a Soviet soldier in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II. “I still remember the sound of [a doctor] cutting my body while I was half-fainting” he told Jiji Press about the experience of having the bullet removed with out anesthesia. “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Akira Takarada,” the Godzilla franchise tweeted Friday. “May his memory continue to inspire the lives of many Godzilla fans.” Takarada was born on the Korean peninsula in 1934 and grew up in the Japanese colony of Manchuria in China. A staunch anti-war activist, he said, “the greatest sin committed by man is war.”