Ishirô Honda

Influential Japanese film director born May 7th, 1911, often credited as being the father of Godzilla. His name is a combination of "I" (or Ino), meaning "boar" and "shirô," meaning fourth boy in the family. Originally, the young Honda had aspirations of becoming a painter. However, as he moved into his teens, it was cinema that became his number-one interest. He attended Nippon University studying art, but was drafted by the Japanese military and spent nearly eight years in uniform. After a period of imprisonment in China as a P.O.W., he returned to Japan to join Tôhô Studios, where, soon afterward, he became acquainted with SFX wizard Eiji Tsuburaya. The two worked on a handful of films before collaborating on the ground-breaking monster epic Godzilla (1954) (aka "Godzilla"). Honda was also at the director's helm for Rodan (1956) (aka "Rodan"), Battle in Outer Space (1959) (aka "Battle in Outer Space"), Mothra (1961) (aka "Mothra"), Matango (1963), and Destroy All Monsters (1968) (aka "Destroy All Monsters"). Although the Japanese monster films had been derided by some critics, Honda was especially proud of his contribution to this rather unique aspect of the fantasy and science-fiction genres. Honda was a life-long friend of fellow Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and Honda worked on several of Kurosawa's landmark films including Stray Dog (1949) (aka "Stray Dog"), Kagemusha (1980) (aka "Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior"), and Ran (1985). Honda died aged 81 on February 28th, 1993, with Akira Kurosawa delivering the eulogy at his funeral.