Japanese-American actor and producer Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa dies at 75

Japanese-American actor and producer Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (田川洋行) has passed away in Santa Barbara at the age of 75 due to complications from a stroke.

Born on September 27, 1950, in Tokyo to a Japanese actress and a Japanese-American U.S. Army officer, Tagawa spent most of his childhood moving among military bases across the United States before the family ultimately settled in Southern California. Growing up between cultures and languages, he developed early interests in both performance and martial arts, later studying at the University of Southern California and spending time in Japan as an exchange student, where he trained in kendo and Shotokan karate under renowned instructor Masatoshi Nakayama.

After gaining attention in ‘The Last Emperor’ (1987), he became a frequent face in major Hollywood productions, appearing in films such as ‘Licence to Kill’, ‘Rising Sun’, ‘Pearl Harbor’, and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. His defining performance as the sorcerer Shang Tsung in ‘Mortal Kombat’ cemented his status as a cult favourite and led to recurring involvement in the franchise. Tagawa built a reputation as a versatile character actor with a memorable on-screen presence.

In his later years, Tagawa remained active in both screen and interactive media. He returned repeatedly to his iconic role as Shang Tsung — reprising it in the TV series ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’ (2013), voicing the character in the video game ‘Mortal Kombat 11’ (2019), and contributing likeness work to the 2023 game ‘Mortal Kombat: Onslaught’. Beyond the Mortal Kombat universe, he took on substantial roles in television — most notably as Nobusuke Tagomi in ‘The Man in the High Castle’ (2015–2018), and later appeared in the sci-fi series ‘Lost in Space’ (2018–2021).

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s legacy endures through a body of work that left a lasting mark on international film and television. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.