The Man in the High Castle Star Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Reveals the System He Wants to Be Remembered For
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the commanding presence of The Man in the High Castle and a cult icon of genre cinema, has died, leaving a legacy of steel-eyed charisma and hard-won wisdom that will inspire fans for years to come.
Some actors change a scene just by walking into it. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was one of those guys. He’s gone now, but the presence and the work stick around — the kind of career you can revisit and still feel that snap of authority and curiosity he brought to everything.
The news
Deadline reported on December 4 that Tagawa died in Santa Barbara at 75. His family, who confirmed the news, were with him in his final hours. The cause, per the outlet, was complications from an earlier stroke.
How he thought about the work
There’s a small, very Tagawa story floating around about a conversation he had at a lounge with a blogger who goes by Officer-808. In that casual chat, he laid out his whole creative philosophy — not the usual acting-class answers, but something closer to breath work and posture as a path to better art and better health. He believed most problems can be solved with creativity, and that people today don’t lean into creativity nearly enough.
"As much as I link breathing and posture to health, we need to be relaxed in our bodies in order to create creativity, rather than having creativity out of tension and adversity. Instead of teaching people how to act, I tell them, Let me help you with your breathing and you will create the most oxygenation for your body so that your body is at peace with itself. From there, creativity comes."
He said he’d developed a system around that idea. It’s very him: intense, practical, and a little against the grain — and it tracks with why his performances felt so grounded even when he was playing larger-than-life villains.
Family carrying it forward
Tagawa is survived by his former wife, Sally Phillips, and their three kids: Calen, Brynne, and Cana. He and Phillips were together for more than three decades and separated in 2014. Calen is a musician and producer who even teamed with his dad on a few projects. Brynne works in modeling and advocacy. Cana keeps a low profile by choice. Judging by how they talk about their work, the creative streak didn’t skip a generation.
Where you know him from
Born in Japan and a naturalized American, Tagawa built a decades-long run that critics and audiences actually agreed on. His first big splash was as the Eunuch Chang in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 epic The Last Emperor. For a lot of fans, though, he’s forever Shang Tsung — the iconic Mortal Kombat antagonist whose stare could cut glass. He kept stacking memorable roles: the zen, haunted Trade Minister Tagomi on Prime Video’s The Man in the High Castle (one of the service’s early signature series), a guest turn on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a string of action and genre favorites like Showdown in Little Tokyo, Tekken, Bridge of Dragons, and Big Trouble in Little China.
And yes, Mortal Kombat has been rebooted, with another movie on the way — a reminder of how long his shadow stretches over that franchise.
Want to revisit the hits?
- Mortal Kombat (1995) — streaming on HBO Max
- The Man in the High Castle (2015) — streaming on Prime Video
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) — streaming on Paramount+
- The Last Emperor (1987) — streaming on HBO Max
- Tekken (2009) — streaming on Starz
- Bridge of Dragons (1999) — streaming on Hoopla
- Big Trouble in Little China (1986) — streaming on The Criterion Channel
Whether you start with Tagomi’s quiet dignity or go straight to the thunderbolt of Shang Tsung, the work holds. That’s the best kind of tribute.