R.I.P. Taylor Wily: ‘Hawaii Five-0’ Alum Dead At 56

Hawaii Five-0 actor Taylor Wily, who played Kamekona across ten seasons of the hit CBS reboot, died on Thursday (June 20) at the age of 56.

The news of his passing was shared on KITV 4 Island News on Thursday, per TV Insider, where Lina Girl Langi, a Hawaiian musician, revealed that Wily had died in Hurricane, Utah. Further details of his passing were not immediately available.

Wily was born Teila Tuli on June 14, 1968, per Deadline. According to the outlet, he was a sumo wrestler and MMA fighter before taking on a career in acting. He competed with the name Takamishu, emerging victorious in his first 14 official matches, and would eventually become the first foreign-born wrestler to secure the championship in the third-highest Makushita division, per TV Insider. He lost to Gerard Gordeau in the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championships in 2000, per People.

One of Wily’s first TV appearances was an uncredited role on Magnum P.I. in 1982 as “Guy Outside Pool Hall,” per IMDb. He would later reprise his Hawaii Five-0 role in seven episodes of the 2018 Magnum P.I. reboot.

Among his other on-screen credits were Marker, One West Waikiki, North Shore, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, MacGyver, and Radical.

The writers behind the Magnum P.I. reboot mourned Wily’s death on X, writing on Friday, “So sorry to hear about the passing of Taylor Wily. Taylor was a gentle giant and a sweet soul. He will be missed. RIP Taylor.”

The executive producer of both the Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. reboots, Peter M. Lenkov, took to Instagram to honor Wily, noting that he’s “devastated” and “heartbroken” over his passing.

He shared another post, per Deadline, featuring a video montage of pictures, explaining that he “fell in love with [Wily] at the first audition” and that he “charmed [him] into making [him] a regular… on the show… and in [his] life.”