Events

Godzilla and Ultraman Guests Announced for Fandom Fest in Louisville, KY

Published on July 11, 2016

Various actors from the Godzilla and Ultraman franchise will be attending the Fandom Fest convention this year in Lousville, KY at the end of July.

Classic tokusatsu guests will be in attendance at Fandom Fest from Friday, July 29th to Sunday, the 31st, including two original suit actors for Godzilla and Ultraman.

Actor Haruo Nakajima previously attended Monsterpalooza in Pasadena, CA back in April. He is the original Godzilla suit actor and played the role until the early 1970s. He is also known for working with legendary director Akira Kurosawa on films such as 1954’s Seven Samurai and 1958’s The Hidden Fortress.

Kenpachiro Satsuma, Tsutomu Kitagawa, and Mizuho Yoshida, all previous Godzilla suit actors, will also be in attendance.

Satsuma’s suit acting career spans three decades. He played Hedorah and Gigan in the 70s, and returned to the franchise to play Godzilla in the Heisei era, which spanned from 1984’s The Return of Godzilla to 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

Kitagawa played Godzilla in every Millennium era film save GMK, as well as Grand King Ghidorah in Rebirth of Mothra III. In addition to his time as classic Toho kaiju, Kitagawa was behind a number of black and blue rangers in the Super Sentai franchise.

Yoshida took over the role of Godzilla for 2001’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK). He has also played the titular antagonist in Keita Amemiya’s Zeiram films, Legion in Gamera 2, Desghidorah and Dagahra in Rebirth of Mothra I and II respectively.

Furthermore, noted illustrator and creature designer, Shinji Nishikawa, will also be in attendance. Nishikawa’s design work can be found in nearly every Heisei and Millennium Godzilla film, and Toho’s TV tokusatsu Chouseishin GranSazer. He was also in attendance with Haruo Nakajima at Monsterpalooza in April.

Satoshi “Bin” Furuya was the original suit actor for Ultraman back in 1966, and later played Amagi in 67’s Ultra Seven.