Among other roles, Cary Tagawa is known for playing Shang Tsung in both the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie and NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11.
Sad news out of Hollywood on Thursday evening. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has passed away at the age of 75. While he will be largely remembered for a full portfolio of movie roles, the gaming world recognized him as Mortal Kombat villain Shang Tsung. And, as a testament to his versatility as an actor, Tagawa played the role in both the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie and also in 2020’s Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath.
Cary Tagawa with Bridgette Wilson-Sampras in Mortal Kombat (1995)
Source: IMDB
Deadline reported that Tagawa passed due to complications from a stroke early on Thursday morning surrounded by his children in his Santa Barbara home. His film credits included the 2015 Prime Video series The Man in the High Castle, 1987’s The Last Emperor, 2001’s Planet of the Apes, 2001’s Pearl Harbor, and 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha. His final role was in the Netflix animated series Blue Eye Samurai.
Tagawa will largely be remembered as Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, one of the first successful video game movie adaptations. Tagawa played the role so well and left such an impression on generations of MK fans that he returned to the role in the Mortal Kombat 11 video game, starring in the Aftermath expansion’s story. However, while he’s remembered primarily as Shang Tsung, it’s not the only time that he has played a bad guy in a video game adaptation. Tagawa also played Heihachi Mishima in the less-fondly-remembered Tekken movie, which went straight to video in 2009. He returned to the role in the 2014 follow-up, Tekken: Kazuya’s Revenge. Tagawa also offered his voice for several other video game roles, most notably in 2003’s Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu as the title villain.
Cary Tagawa is survived by his three children: Calen, Brynne, and Cana. Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.
Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can’t enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?
