Tomoyuki Tanaka

Tomoyuki Tanaka ( April 26th, 1910 - April 2nd, 1997)

Over his 60-year long career at Toho studios, Tomoyuki Tanaka produced over 200 films, but he is best remembered as the creator of the Godzilla film series. Soon after his graduation from Kansai University in 1940, Tanaka was hired at Toho. Four years later he produced his own film, but it was not until Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954) that Tanaka became well known. He subsequently produced all 22 entries in the Toho series, his last being Godzilla vs. Destroyer in 1995. In addition to working on the monster films, Tanaka also produced a few Akira Kurosawa films such as Akahige/Red Beard (1965) and Kagemusha/The Shadow Warrior (1980). Tanaka died of a stroke in Tokyo at the age of 86. Sandra Brennan