Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Star of 'Mortal Kombat' and 'The Man in the High Castle', Passes Away at 75

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, widely recognized for portraying the villainous sorcerer Shang Tsung in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, has died at 75 following complications from a stroke.

Tagawas long-running association with the Mortal Kombat franchise extended beyond the original movie. He returned as Shang Tsung in its 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, later revisiting the character in the 2013 series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and in a 2015 episode of Mortal Kombat X: Generations. He also voiced the character in the 2019 video game Mortal Kombat 11 and provided his likeness from the 1995 film for the mobile title Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.

Outside the franchise, Tagawa gained recognition for his performance as Chang in the Academy Awardwinning film The Last Emperor. Younger audiences may remember him from the Disney Channel favorite Johnny Tsunami, in which he played the legendary Hawaiian surfer who mentors his grandson as he navigates a new life in Vermont.

Tagawas filmography also includes roles in License to Kill, Memoirs of a Geisha, Pearl Harbor, Tim Burtons Planet of the Apes, and 47 Ronin. His television work featured appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, MacGyver, and Miami Vice.

One of his most acclaimed performances came with the role of Nobusuke Tagomi in Amazon Primes The Man in the High Castle. As Japans trade minister in an alternate-history world where the Axis powers triumphed in World War II, Tagomi seeks to prevent escalating conflict and maintain peace amid rising authoritarianism.

Tagawa once reflected on the character, noting how Tagomi embodied the balance between Eastern identity and Western surroundingsan experience he felt deeply connected to in his own life.

He is survived by his children Calen, Brynne, and Cana, as well as two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.

Author: Zoe Harrison