Akira Ifukube, 91, 'Godzilla' composer

TOKYO -- Composer Akira Ifukube, who brought the giant movie lizard Godzilla to life with a trademark anthem and high-pitched roar, has died. He was 91.

Mr. Ifukube died of multiple organ failure Wednesday at a hospital in Tokyo, according to a former colleague, Jun Koda of the Tokyo College of Music.

Mr. Ifukube composed more than 250 film scores over 50 years, including for the 1956 war film ''The Harp of Burma." He headed the Tokyo College of Music from 1976 to 1987.

He rose to fame with the menacing, repetitive score to the Japanese movie ''Godzilla" in 1954.

The self-trained composer also devised Godzilla's high-pitched roar -- for which sound engineers rubbed a leather glove against the loosened strings of a double bass -- and the lizard's booming footsteps.