Veteran Tokusatsu Actor Goro Mutsumi Passes Away at the Age of 86

Goro Mutsumi in April 2013. Photo by Brett Homenick.

It has been reported that actor Goro Mutsumi, best known for playing alien leaders Kuronuma in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and Mugar in Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), passed away on June 5, 2021, at the age of 86.

Unfortunately, I'd known that this had been likely since September of last year. I mailed Mutsumi-san a birthday card that month to his home in Kawasaki, which eventually was returned to me unopened. Considering that the New Year's greeting card that I'd sent a few months prior to that wasn't, I immediately became worried that something was wrong. To make matters worse, neither of the two phone numbers I had for him worked anymore. A message to the acting school where he had been recently teaching went unreturned. I didn't want to accept it, but I knew what likely had happened. I'm deeply saddened that my fears have been confirmed.

I had the privilege of meeting Mutsumi-san three times -- all of which were in the year 2013. I met him twice in April of that year, both times were to conduct an interview. (The interview ran a bit long, so we agreed to meet a few days later to finish it.) The last meeting, circa July 2013, was purely social. The biggest memory I have of that occasion was that I asked to take photos at the end of the dinner, but, because he had been drinking throughout the evening, he didn't want to be photographed.

In the summer of 2016, I invited him to see Shin Godzilla (2016) with me, but, while he couldn't make it, he said he wasn't even aware that the film was coming out! I thought that was pretty amusing. 

To the best of my memory, I last spoke to Mutsumi-san on the phone in March 2019. He was sometimes hard to get a hold of, and it was never easy making plans with him. I really wish I could have arranged to see him again, but I was never able to do it. But I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend in his company.

I was able to conduct two interviews with Mutsumi-san. The first interview is from 2009, and it was done by correspondence. The second interview was conducted in April 2013 in person. As you could imagine, it's much more detailed and comprehensive. For those of you who'd like to get a sense of Mutsumi-san's life and career, I'd highly recommend reading them.

Rest in peace, Mutsumi-san.