Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, best known for playing Shang Tsung in the first Mortal Kombat film, has died at 75. His family announced he passed away on December 4th after suffering complications from a stroke.
Ken Tagawa acted in films for almost forty years. He started with a small role in ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ in 1986, but gained wider recognition the following year playing Chang in ‘The Last Emperor’. He also appeared in many other well-known movies, including ‘Licence to Kill’, ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, ‘Pearl Harbor’, ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’, ’47 Ronin’, and the 2001 remake of ‘Planet of the Apes’.
Though Tagawa had a long and varied career, he was most famous among video game players for playing the villain Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. He returned to the role in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series, and later provided both his voice and appearance for the character in Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.
Ed Boon, one of the creators of Mortal Kombat, honored actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa online, praising him as a fantastic voice actor. He noted Tagawa brought a unique combination of intensity, confidence, and physical prowess to his characters and will always be remembered for his iconic portrayal of Shang Tsung in the original movie.
Today, we mourn the loss of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a true legend. Best known for his iconic role as Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, he passed away at the age of 75. We were fortunate to experience his incredible performance not only in the original film, but also through his fantastic voice work in Mortal Kombat 11. Cary was a truly remarkable…
— Ed Boon (@noobde) December 5, 2025
Tagawa famously portrayed Heihachi Mishima in two Tekken films, though they didn’t achieve the same popularity as Mortal Kombat. Later in his career, he had a significant role as Nobusuke Tagomi, a Trade Minister, in the Prime Video series The Man in the High Castle. His final acting credit was as Master Eiji in the Netflix anime Blue Eye Samurai.
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2025-12-05 16:09