What happened to Taylor Wily?

Actor and former sumo-wrestling star, Taylor Wily, was known to many for his recurring role as Kamekona in the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0, among many other great roles.

But last week, the heartbreaking news broke that the Samoan actor had sadly passed away in the town of Hurricane, Utah, on Thursday June 20. At the time of his death, he was just 56 years old. Condolences came pouring in from people who knew him personally and fans alike. One of the most touching tributes came from Hawaii Five-0 executive producer, Peter M. Lenkov, who wrote a paragraph accompanied by a slideshow of photographs on Instagram that featured Wily being a generally wholesome and lovely dude.

“T, as I told you many times, I fell in love with you at the first audition. You came in with a towel on your head mopping up sweat, and I was smitten. You charmed me into making you a regular… on the show… and in my life. You were family. And I will miss you every day, brother.”

Taylor Wily’s career

Wily appeared in an impressive 171 out of 240 episodes of the CBS show, and also appeared as the same character in two other reboot shows, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I., and there’s no doubt he was a solid fan favorite character who stole whatever scene he was in. Prior to his work across the three shows, he appeared alongside Jason Segal and Kristen Bell in the 2008 romantic comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Despite his very accomplished career Hawaii Five-0 remained his favorite role according to an article from the BBC, claiming it was, “the best job in the world.”

Going back even further the Hawaii native also had an outstanding career in sumo wrestling, competing in Japan under the name Takamikuni, although a he retired in 1989 after several knee injuries. He went on to compete for a brief stint in the Ultimate Fighting Championship during the early nineties – in fact, he actually competed in the first ever UFC event, UFC 1, under the pseudonym Teila Tula.

Despite the aggressive nature of such sports Wily was known to be an all round lovely guy. Speaking to Variety, his entertainment lawyer claimed that “Taylor was one of the nicest human beings of anybody out there.”

Do we know Taylor Wily’s cause of death yet?

The beloved actor was relatively young so naturally fans want to know what led to his untimely passing. Unfortunately, as of the time of writing we don’t have any specific details relating to his exact cause of death. According to an article from the L.A. Times the actor died of “natural causes,” which narrows it down a bit, but we’ll probably have to wait a little longer to find out what exactly led to Wily’s sudden passing.

Taylor Wily is survived by his wife, Halona Wily, and their two children.