This page uses content from the Tomoyuki Tanaka biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Tomoyuki Tanaka (田中友幸) was a Japanese movie producer, most famous for creating the Godzilla movies. He was born in Osaka, Japan on April 26, 1910, and died in Tokyo on April 2, 1997. He is also the original creator of Godzilla. [1]

Soon after graduating from Kansai University in 1940, Tanaka joined Toho Studios. After four years with the company, he began producing his own films. In his 60-year career with Toho, Tanaka produced more than 200 films.

He is best known as the creator, with director Ishirō Honda and special-effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, of Godzilla, the towering embodiment of post-World War II anxiety. Tanaka created Godzilla in 1954 in an effort to illlustrate the terror Japanese felt after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The classic Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954; released in the U.S. in 1956) would be followed by 21 films starring the gargantuan lizard.

In addition to other sci-fi thrillers (often with the other three members of the Godzilla team: Honda and Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube) such as The Mysterians (1957) and Attack of the Mushroom People (1963), Tanaka produced films directed by the acclaimed Akira Kurosawa. Their film Kagemusha (1980) was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar and took the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

He has a dedication to his death in the remake of Godzilla.

References

Brennan, Sandra. Tomoyuki Tanaka biography at Barnes & Noble online.

External links

ja:田中友幸

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.