Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in ‘Mortal Kombat,’ has died at 75

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 Tagawa died surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara from complications due to a stroke his manager Margie Weiner approved on Thursday Cary was a rare soul generous thoughtful and endlessly committed to his craft she mentioned in an email His loss is immeasurable My heart is with his family friends and all who loved him FILE Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa gestures after arriving at the world premiere of NBC s new police series Hawaii on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu Hawaii Aug in Honolulu Hawaii AP Photo Lucy Pemoni File FILE Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa pose on the red carpet at the opening ceremony of the th Moscow International Film Festival in Moscow Russia June AP Photo Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr File FILE Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa attends The Man in the High Castle photo call at the Amazon Summer TCA Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Aug in Beverly Hills Calif Photo by Richard Shotwell Invision AP File Show Caption of FILE Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa gestures after arriving at the world premiere of NBC s new police series Hawaii on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu Hawaii Aug in Honolulu Hawaii AP Photo Lucy Pemoni File Expand Tagawa s decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 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 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 s father met his mother while stationed in Japan Tagawa narrated Honolulu Magazine in His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck he commented His mother Ayako had been a stage actor in Japan according to the Honolulu weekly newspaper Midweek Tagawa revealed she urged him not to pursue acting because there weren t multiple good roles for Asians He eventually began an acting career at age after being a celery farmer limo driver pizza supply truck driver and photojournalist he mentioned The good news for Asian actors and Hollywood is that it s better than it s ever been but the bad news is that it hasn t changed that much he notified Midweek in The opportunities haven t increased that much but commercially there s more exposure Related Articles Suspect in DC pipe bomb event declared to have confessed in interviews with investigators AP sources say What boycotting looks like years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott Shops empty in a Hispanic neighborhood as immigration crackdown comes to Louisiana U S consumer sentiment improved this month but remains subdued the University of Michigan reports US vaccine advisers say not all babies need a hepatitis B shot at birth Tagawa played the Baron in Memoirs of a Geisha a movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society Certain critics mentioned the movie lacked authenticity but Tagawa revealed 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 recounted The Associated Press in Unless the Japanese did the movie it s all interpretation Tagawa communicated 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 company In Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a petty misdemeanor charge of harassing a girlfriend She had bruises to her legs police stated at the time His attorney stated he took full responsibility for the circumstance from the beginning and made no excuses