Before joining Shintoho as an assistant director (under his older brother, Yoshiki Onoda), Hirata moved into still photography, and eventually joined Toho in 1953, under the studio's "New Face" program, which would lead to his casting in Godzilla (although Hirata was originally intended for the part of Ogata, eventually played by another genre regular, Akira Takarada).
She is also divorced from the famous Japanese actor Akira Takarada, who rose to fame in the Toho movie studios doing the Godzilla movies since 1954.
Akira Kurosawa | Akira | Akira (film) | Akira Toriyama | Akira Hokuto | Asa Akira | Akira Asada | Akira Yoshimura | Akira Ueda | Akira Tozawa | Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater | Akira Takarada | Akira Sakuma | Akira Nishimura | Akira Maeda | Akira Kuroiwa | Akira Kamiya | Akira Isogawa | cover of ''Japanesque'' with Akira Ito and Joe Yamanaka | Akira Yoshizawa | Akira Yasuda | Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 2 | Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 1 | Akira Sasaki | Akira Ohashi | Akira Nakao | Akira Mori | Akira Miyoshi | Akira Miyawaki | Akira (manga) |
The English-language version was prepared by UPA at Glen Glenn Sound in Hollywood, and Marvin Miller provided the English voice for Akira Takarada as Astronaut Fuji.