Japanese actor Haruo Nakajima, who portrayed the role of Godzilla in 12 films, died on Monday at the age of 88 in Tokyo, AP reported. He had been hospitalised in July for pneumonia, his daughter said.

Nakajima had donned the costume for every film in the franchise since the original Godzilla in 1954, a film that inspired many Hollywood spin-offs, including the 1998 America film of the same name. His last perormance as the character was in 1972 in the film, Godzilla vs Gigan. He had also appeared in other Japanese war films, including Seven Samurai.

The actor had started his career performing stunt roles in a number of films. However, he became popular after he wore the Godzilla bodysuit in 1954, that weighed up to a 100 kg and was made up of concrete.

Nakajima had said that he had invented the character from scratch and used to visit the zoo to study how animals moved. “If Godzilla cannot walk properly, it is nothing but a freak show,” he told AP in an interview in 2014. “It is not some cowboy movie.”

In an interview with CBS in 2014, Nakajima said he had once stuck a thermometer inside the suit and it was 140 degrees hot.

The film was made following the World War II when the United States dropped nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and defeated Japan. “Godzilla is a creature of the Americans,” Nakajima said. “Godzilla’s breath is nuclear radiation. He showed our audiences that atomic bombs are frightening.”

“I am the original, the real thing,” he said in 2014. “My Godzilla was the best.”