Steve Martin (Godzilla) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Toho Toho is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group... character

Steve Martin
Gender	Male Male Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
Appearances	Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 Japanese/American black-and-white science fiction kaiju film. It is an "Americanized" version of the original Godzilla film, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe... Godzilla 1985 The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla (released as in Japan and as Godzilla 1985 in North America, is a 1984 Science Fiction Kaiju film. The sixteenth film in Toho's Godzilla series, it was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and directed by Koji Hashimoto with special...
Portrayed by:	Raymond Burr Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...

Steve Martin is a fictional American reporter played by actor Raymond Burr

Raymond Burr

Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...

. The journalist first appears in the 1956 Godzilla

Godzilla

is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 Japanese/American black-and-white science fiction kaiju film. It is an "Americanized" version of the original Godzilla film, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe...

, the American version of the original Japanese Godzilla

Godzilla (1954 film)

is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, who ravages Japan, bringing back the...

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Steve Martin, a foreign correspondent for United World News, arrives in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

as a stopover on a flight to Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

. While there, he plans to see his old college friend, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa. He inevitably falls victim to Godzilla

Godzilla

’s rampage. The film begins with the wounded Martin narrating through flashback the events leading up to Godzilla

Godzilla

’s major attack. The remainder of the story consists of him following the rest of the cast until the end with Godzilla

Godzilla

’s defeat.

Godzilla 1985

Now older and distant from the events happening in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Steve Martin returns as a consultant for the Pentagon

The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

’s military effort against Godzilla

Godzilla

. Martin recounts his firsthand experience of the monster

Kaiju

is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....

’s power and helps the American generals make tactical decisions about deploying military forces. By this time, he is a grandfather and semi-retired writer. The book Cairo via Tokyo, seen on his desk, is likely an account of his adventures in 1954. Martin has an ivory dragon which he carries with him.

Because the actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

and comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....

was popular by this time, the film's character is referred to as "Mr. Martin."

Godzilla Returns

Though Marc Cerasini's Godzilla novels

Godzilla (Marc Cerasini series)

Godzilla is a novel series written by author Marc Cerasini based on the film characters. Each novel has its own unique plot and storyline, with Toho's kaiju featured as the stars.-Godzilla Returns:...

take place in a separate continuity from Toho films, Steven Martin is mentioned. In the first novel, Godzilla Returns, television reporters Brian Shimura and Nick Gordon work for the news company INN. In preparation for Godzilla

Godzilla

, who has suddenly returned after many years, they read This is Tokyo, a book by Martin that documents his experience in 1954. Gordon initially pans Martin's grave style, reading Martin's opening words: "This is Tokyo, once a city of 6 million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of man's imagination. Tokyo - a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world." However, when Gordon sees for himself Godzilla

Godzilla

destroy Tokyo, all he can weakly say when he reports on the destruction is "This is Tokyo..."

Character background

To broaden Godzillas international appeal, Burr's character was inserted into the reedited version Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Thus it was through Steve Martin that American and all other international audiences outside of Japan were first introduced to Godzilla

Godzilla

. Scenes requiring Burr to interact with the original cast were achieved through intricate cutting

Cut (filmmaking)

In the post-production process of film editing and video editing, a cut is an abrupt, but usually trivial film transition from one sequence to another. It is synonymous with the term edit, though "edit" can imply any number of transitions or effects. The cut, dissolve and wipe serve as the three...

and the use of doubles

Body double

A body double is a general term for someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character in any recorded visual medium, in shots where the character's body is shown but the face is either not visible or shown indistinctly, or in shots where the image of the credited actor's face is joined,...

for Martin’s conversations.

In 1984, the release of The Return of Godzilla

The Return of Godzilla

The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla (released as in Japan and as Godzilla 1985 in North America, is a 1984 Science Fiction Kaiju film. The sixteenth film in Toho's Godzilla series, it was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and directed by Koji Hashimoto with special...

brought the series out of temporary retirement. Renamed Godzilla 1985 in the U.S., this version saw Raymond Burr reprise his role as Steve Martin. The return of Martin is significant in the Godzilla

Godzilla

franchise as it marks the first time a character reappears in more than one series (Showa

Showa era (daikaiju eiga)

In the terminology of daikaiju eiga the Shōwa Era refers not to the actual reign of the Shōwa emperor but to all daikaiju eiga made between 1954 and 1980...

and Heisei

Heisei era (daikaiju eiga)

In the context of Japanese monster cinema the Heisei Era refers not to the current era in Japan but to all kaiju eiga made between 1984 and 1999...

). The only other characters to do so are Emiko Yamane, played by Momoko Kouchi in Godzilla

Godzilla (1954 film)

and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

, alternatively titled Godzilla vs. Destroyer, is a 1995 science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Kazuki Omori. It was released in Japan on December 9, 1995. It is the 22nd installment in the Godzilla series of films and the seventh and last of the Heisei series...

, and Professor Shin'ichi Chujo, played by Hiroshi Koizumi in Mothra

Mothra (film)

is a 1961 Kaiju film from Toho Studios, directed by genre regular Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the kaiju eiga debut of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach to the genre grew to prominence during the 1960s...

and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., released in Japan as , is a 2003 science fiction kaiju film directed by Masaaki Tezuka. It was the twenty-seventh film to be released in the Godzilla series. It is the twelfth film to feature Mothra, the second film to feature Kamoebas, and the fifth and latest film to...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.