Tomoyuki Tanaka

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For the musician, see Fantastic Plastic Machine (musician).

Tomoyuki Tanaka (田中友幸 Tanaka Tomoyuki) was a Japanese film 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. [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 storyteller Shigeru Kayama, 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 spawn a series of sequels, adding up to 28 films by 2004.

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 Matango (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.