Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in ‘Mortal Kombat,’ has died at 75
Dec 4, 2025, 8:24 PM | Updated: Dec 5, 2025, 5:06 am
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a Tokyo-born actor known for his roles in the film “Mortal Kombat” and TV series “The Man in the High Castle” has died. He was 75.
Tagawa died in Santa Barbara from complications due to a stroke, his manager, Margie Weiner, confirmed on Thursday.
“He died surrounded by his family, with love,” she said.
Tagawa’s decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film “The Last Emperor.” Since then, he appeared in such films as “Pearl Harbor,” “Planet of the Apes” and “License to Kill.”
Tagawa was born in Tokyo but was raised mostly in the U.S. South while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to U.S. mainland Army bases. He lived in Honolulu and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a while.
Tagawa played the Baron in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” a 2005 movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl’s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.
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.
“What did they expect? It wasn’t a documentary,″ Tagawa told The Associated Press in 2006. “Unless the Japanese did the movie, it’s all interpretation.″
Tagawa told the AP that he studied various martial acts but left because he wasn’t into fighting or competition.
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.
In 2008, Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a petty misdemeanor charge of harassing a girlfriend. She had bruises to her legs, police said at the time.
His attorney said he took full responsibility for the case from the beginning and made no excuses.
