<figure id="attachment_3228244" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3228244" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3228244 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/3180a522-lifestyle-tagawa-emel-pic-051225.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3228244" class="wp-caption-text">Prolific Japanese-American actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa passed away on Thursday following stroke complications. (Wikipedia pic)</figcaption></figure>
LOS ANGELES: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, best known for films &#8220;The Last Emperor&#8221;, &#8220;Mortal Kombat&#8221; and &#8220;The Man in the High Castle&#8221;, died on Thursday in Santa Barbara, California. He was 75.
The Japanese-American actor passed away of complications following a stroke, according to his family.
Tagawa’s career spanned more than three decades and included dozens of film and television roles. He first gained major attention with his appearance in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning &#8220;The Last Emperor&#8221; (1987), following an earlier smaller role in the cult hit &#8220;Big Trouble in Little China&#8221;.
He went on to appear in films such as the James Bond instalment &#8220;Licence to Kill&#8221; (1989), &#8220;Showdown in Little Tokyo&#8221; (1991), &#8220;Rising Sun&#8221; (1993), &#8220;Memoirs of a Geisha&#8221; (2005) and &#8220;Tekken&#8221; (2009).
But his most recognisable role came in 1995, when he played the villainous sorcerer Shang Tsung in the film adaptation of &#8220;Mortal Kombat&#8221;. Tagawa later said the character was “a game-changer” for his career and “as classic a bad guy as I can create&#8221;.
He would go on to reprise the role in later films, TV projects and video-game instalments, becoming closely associated with the franchise for close to 30 years.
This included voicing Shang Tsung in the 2019 release &#8220;Mortal Kombat 11&#8221;, and providing the character’s likeness for the 2023 mobile game &#8220;Mortal Kombat: Onslaught&#8221;.
<figure id="attachment_3228240" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3228240" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3228240 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/24065515-lifestyle-mortal-emel-pic-051225.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3228240" class="wp-caption-text">Tagawa is best known for his role as Shang Tsung in the &#8216;Mortal Kombat&#8217; franchise, starting with 1995&#8217;s film adaptation of the game. (New Line Cinema pic)</figcaption></figure>
On television, Tagawa was widely known for his role as trade minister Nobusuke Tagomi in &#8220;The Man in the High Castle&#8221;. He also made guest appearances in series such as &#8220;Miami Vice&#8221;, &#8220;Star Trek: The Next Generation&#8221;, &#8220;The X-Files&#8221;, &#8220;Baywatch&#8221;, &#8220;Hawaii Five-0&#8221; and &#8220;Heroes&#8221;.
Tagawa was born on Sept 27, 1950 in Tokyo, and moved to the United States at age five. Raised in the South in a military family, he later settled in California, where he taught martial arts before turning to acting.
He is survived by his wife, Sally Phillips; his children, Calen, Brynne and Cana; and two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.

MatchPoint Times

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ‘Mortal Kombat’ actor, dead at 75

Known for film and TV roles including a 30-year association with the hit video game, the Japanese-American actor died from stroke complications.

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