Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has died. A veteran actor with nearly 150 credits to his name, Tagawa was probably best known for his long association with the Mortal Kombat franchise, where he played villainous sorcerer/Kombatant Shang Tsung on multiple occasions. (Most notably in 1995’s Mortal Kombat film adaptation, and in the gaming franchise’s 2019 installment, Mortal Kombat 11.) Prolific in film and television, live-action and voice, Tagawa was a reliable screen presence through the latter parts of the 20th century and well into the 21st (including a leading role in Prime Video’s The Man In The High Castle, which allowed him to show far more of his range than many more villainous parts across his long career). Per Variety, Tagawa died on December 4 from complications from a stroke. He was 75.
Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Japanese-American soldier in the American Army, Tagawa spent most of his childhood living on Army bases around the United States, before his family ultimately settled in California. Training in acting and martial arts served him in good stead securing early roles once he left school and begin his career in earnest, first with small roles in shows like MacGuyver and Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then in his first break into film, appearing in a small role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winner The Last Emperor. From there, Tagawa began to work at a frankly relentless pace, alternating single-episode stints on American TV with a lengthening laundry list of films. (Including playing an undercover Hong Kong narcotics officer who runs afoul of James Bond in 1989’s License To Kill, and appearing in a major role opposite Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes in 1993’s Rising Sun.)
When it came to securing the signature role of his career, Tagawa famously didn’t screw around: Legend has it that he arrived to his Mortal Kombat audition in full costume, and basically took the part of the game series’ evil wizard by sheer force of personality. The role tapped into Tagawa’s skill at projecting both menace and grandeur, as well as his training as a martial artist—to say nothing of his willingness to give his all in a truly committed villainous scowl. (The actor himself, meanwhile, ascribed at least part of the 1995 movie’s shock success to director Paul W.S. Anderson’s savvy in selecting a soundtrack, including the prominent use of The Immortals’ “Mortal Kombat (Techno Syndrome)” for the film’s fight sequences.) Tagawa’s performance as Shang Tsung was beloved enough that it influenced many future incarnations of the character—often depicted as much younger than his initially wizened appearance, to match Tagawa—including returning to the franchise to reprise the role for Mortal Kombat 11.
Despite the film’s success, Tagawa’s career continued after Mortal Kombat much as it had before: A mix of TV roles—including a lead role in a couple of seasons of Don Johnson’s Nash Bridges—interspersed with films both big and small. (Now also incorporating an increasing number of voice roles into the mix.) Arriving in 2015, The Man In The High Castle was, thus, a rare landing point for an actor frequently on the move; as Japanese Trade Minister Tagomi, Tagawa tapped into his ability to project stoic calm to become a rare moral center point in the show’s often complex alternate universe moral equations. Tagawa stayed with the show for three of its four seasons, following it with a stint as a recurring character on Netflix’s Lost In Space reboot.
Tagawa’s death on Thursday was confirmed by a representative.
