{"id":105476,"date":"2025-12-05T08:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=105476"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:23:20","slug":"cary-hiroyuki-tagawa-actor-who-performed-in-mortal-kombat-dies-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=105476","title":{"rendered":"Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in \u2018Mortal Kombat,\u2019 dies at 75"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a Tokyo-born actor known for his roles in the film \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d and TV series \u201cThe Man in the High Castle,\u201d has died. He was 75.<\/p>\n

Tagawa died surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara from complications due to a stroke, his manager, Margie Weiner, confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCary was a rare soul: generous, thoughtful, and endlessly committed to his craft,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cHis loss is immeasurable. My heart is with his family, friends, and all who loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tagawa\u2019s decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci\u2019s Oscar-winning film \u201cThe Last Emperor.\u201d Since then, he has appeared in such films as \u201cPearl Harbor,\u201d \u201cPlanet of the Apes,\u201d and \u201cLicense to Kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tagawa was raised mostly in the US South while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to US mainland Army bases. He lived in Honolulu and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a while.<\/p>\n

Tagawa\u2019s father met his mother while stationed in Japan, Tagawa told Honolulu Magazine in 2004. His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck, he said.<\/p>\n

His mother, Ayako, had been a stage actor in Japan, according to the Honolulu weekly newspaper Midweek. Tagawa said she asked him not to pursue acting because there weren\u2019t many good roles for Asians.<\/p>\n

He eventually began an acting career at age 36 after being a celery farmer, limo driver, pizza supply truck driver, and photojournalist, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news for Asian actors and Hollywood is that it\u2019s better than it\u2019s ever been, but the bad news is that it hasn\u2019t changed that much,\u201d he told Midweek in 2005. \u201cThe opportunities haven\u2019t increased that much, but commercially there\u2019s more exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tagawa played the Baron in \u201cMemoirs of a Geisha,\u201d a 2005 movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl\u2019s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.<\/p>\n

Some critics said the movie lacked authenticity, but Tagawa said it was unrealistic to expect a fictional work written and directed by Americans to fully reflect Japanese style and sensitivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did they expect? \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a documentary,\u201d Tagawa told The Associated Press in 2006. \u201cUnless the Japanese did the movie, it\u2019s all interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tagawa told the AP that he studied various martial acts but left because he wasn\u2019t into fighting or competition.<\/p>\n

Instead, he developed a system he called Ninjah Sportz, which incorporated martial arts as a training and healing tool. He worked with professional athletes like World Boxing Council light flyweight champion Brian Viloria and advised members of the University of Hawaii football team.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a petty misdemeanor charge of harassing a girlfriend. She had bruises on her legs, police said at the time.<\/p>\n

His attorney said he took full responsibility for the case from the beginning and made no excuses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Cary-HiroyukiCary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a Tokyo-born actor known for his roles in the film \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d and TV series \u201cThe Man in the High Castle,\u201d has died. He was 75.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13405,2047,1910,13406,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cary-hiroyuki-tawaga","category-hp-news-9","category-international","category-mortal-kombat","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}