Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the celebrated actor known for bringing the sorcerer Shang Tsung to life in the Mortal Kombat universe, has died at the age of 75. His publicist, Penny Vizcarra, said he passed away on Thursday December 4 in Santa Barbara, California, after complications from a stroke. His children were at his side.
His death marks the end of a remarkable screen career that stretched nearly four decades and included more than 150 film and television roles. His work reached audiences across continents through films such as Mortal Kombat, the James Bond adventure Licence To Kill, and the Amazon drama The Man in the High Castle. His performance as Shang Tsung became a defining part of modern action cinema, beginning with the 1995 Mortal Kombat film and continuing through later series entries and video games. He voiced the character in Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019, and his likeness returned in the 2023 release Mortal Kombat Onslaught.
Tagawa often recalled that joining the franchise came at the right time in his career. He described the original film as a moment when the video game series was rapidly growing in global popularity.
Read also:
- WWE star John Cena announces retirement, cites age factor
- I’m not a stereotyped actor – Adedimeji Lateef
- Why I’m scandal free – Veteran actor, Akin Lewis
His rise in Hollywood began with his role as the driver Chang in the 1987 historical epic The Last Emperor. He went on to appear in Licence To Kill as Kwang, an undercover operative for the Hong Kong Narcotics Board, and later shared the screen with Sean Connery in the 1993 thriller Rising Sun. His range carried him through memorable parts in Memoirs of a Geisha, Pearl Harbor, and The Man in the High Castle, where he portrayed the thoughtful and conflicted official Nobusuke Tagomi between 2015 and 2018. He also made appearances in several classic television series including Baywatch, Miami Vice and MacGyver. His final credited role was in the 2023 animated series Blue Eye Samurai.
Tagawa was born to a Japanese American father who served in the United States Army and a mother who had been a performer in the Takarazuka musical theatre tradition. Speaking to The Guardian in an earlier interview, he said that acting came naturally to him, explaining that his mother had left an aristocratic life in Tokyo to work on the stage.
