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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, an actor from Tokyo, known for his roles in the film. Mortal Kombat and series The Man in the High Castledied. He was 75.
Tagawa died surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara, California, from complications caused by a stroke, his manager Margie Weiner confirmed Thursday.
“Cary was a rare soul: generous, thoughtful and endlessly dedicated to his craft,” she wrote in an email. “His loss is immeasurable. My heart goes out to his family, friends and everyone who loved him.”
Tagawa's decades of film and television roles really began in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning film. The Last Emperor. Since then he has appeared in films such as Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes And License to Kill.
Tagawa grew up primarily in the southern United States, while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to military bases on the U.S. mainland. For some time he lived in Honolulu and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
His father met his mother while in Japan, Tagawa told Honolulu Magazine in 2004. His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck, he said.
According to the Honolulu weekly newspaper Midweek, Tagawa's mother, Ayako, was a stage actress in Japan. Tagawa said she asked him not to pursue acting because there weren't many good roles for Asians.
He eventually began an acting career at age 36 after working as a celery farmer, limousine driver, pizza truck driver and photojournalist, he said. He went on to have a successful acting career, often playing villains.
Tagawa played the Baron in Memoirs of a Geisha2005 film based on the best-selling book, which follows a young girl's journey from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.
Some critics said the film lacked authenticity, but Tagawa said it was unrealistic to expect a feature written and directed by Americans to fully reflect Japanese style and sensibility.
“What did they expect? It wasn't a documentary,” Tagawa told The Associated Press in 2006. “If the film is not made by the Japanese, then it is just an interpretation.”
In 2008, Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a misdemeanor charge of stalking a girlfriend. She had bruises on her legs, police said at the time. His lawyer said he took full responsibility for the case from the very beginning and made no excuses.
