Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Who Embodied so Many Incredible Villains, Is Dead at 75

In December 2015, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa spoke with Pravmir about being baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Japanese-American actor and his brother were brought to the United States when he was 6 years old. His parents decided to raise them both as Christians in order to help them better assimilate into American culture. Cary-Hiroyuki's brother continued with a more relaxed version of Christianity, but the actor struggled to find his own beliefs.

He went on to talk about how Hollywood promotes ridiculous content like reality shows, claiming the people who watch them care more about the next episode than what's happening to anyone else on the planet. Despite the fact that he's played a lot of bad guys, Cary-Hiroyuki said he was very much a caring person who likes to serve others. He also spoke about death. In December 2025, he died at the age of 75. Here's what we know about his cause of death.

Cary-Hiroyuki's death was confirmed by his publicist, Penny Vizcarra, and manager, Margie Wiener, to The New York Times. He died at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif., of complications from a stroke. He was best known for his roles in The Last Emperor, the Mortal Kombat films, and the Prime series The Man in the High Castle.

The actor spoke with the AV Club in November 2015 about some of his career highs up until that point. Cary-Hiroyuki's third project of his career was 1987's The Last Emperor, which he said was an incredible experience and an incredible way to start a career. "If I had died and gone to heaven, I would’ve died happy, thinking, 'Well, at least I’ve done something in Hollywood,'" he said, laughing.

Cary-Hiroyuki also touched on the fact that, as a Japanese-American actor, there can be a lot of stereotypical roles out there, but his career didn't go in that direction. In 2001, he played the ape Krull in the reboot of Planet of the Apes, which was a "massively exciting experience," he said. He very much enjoyed playing Krull, apart from the four hours he spent in the makeup chair.

While speaking with the AV Club, Cary-Hiroyuki brought up the fact that so many people want to know why he mostly plays villains. "Well, have you seen many Asian good-guy roles?" he usually asks. Cary-Hiroyuki expanded upon his approach to playing a bad guy in his interview with Pravmir. He said it's part of Japanese culture to understand both the light and the dark. "So certainly I played dark characters, but I played them from my light," he explained.

Cary-Hiroyuki also revealed that he wasn't afraid of dying, just that he wasn't worthy of God's love. Before he was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church, he carried a lot of guilt about things he had done in life, but after accepting God's love, Cary-Hiroyuki said he felt "brand new." He is survived by his wife, Sally Phillips; his children, Calen, Byrnne, and Cana; and two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.