Godzilla gets star on Walk of Fame

updated 3:24 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2004

TOKYO - Godzilla, the fire-breathing movie monster born in a nuclear accident, is joining Hollywood royalty with a star on the Walk of Fame.

A ceremony will honor the giant lizard in front of Hollywood Boulevard’s famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Nov. 29, the world premiere of “Godzilla: Final Wars,” said Shogo Tomiyama, president of Toho Pictures Inc.

The movie, the 28th in the series, will mark 50 years since Godzilla emerged from the sea.

Featuring a showdown with 10 monsters, old and new, bashing through tiny sets of Paris, New York, Shanghai, China, and Sydney, Australia, it will be the last time that Godzilla — played by an actor in a rubber suit — stomps through miniaturized sets before retiring.

“This movie will surprise and delight everyone, from longtime fans to first-time viewers,” Tomiyama said Wednesday at a news conference.

Known in Japan as Gojira, from a combination of the words for gorilla and whale, the monster first appeared in director Ishiro Honda’s 1954 black-and-white classic.

It was roused from its undersea lair by a hydrogen bomb test — a story line that reflected fears of a nuclear holocaust after the United States tested an H-bomb at Bikini Atoll.

The actor in the rubber suit will attend next month’s ceremony, Tomiyama said.

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