Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the actor who starred in the Mortal Kombat franchise and Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle television series, has died. He was 75.
— The Hollywood Reporter (@thr.com) Dec 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Tagawa died on Thursday due to complications from a stroke, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
He starred in various Mortal Kombat projects, beginning with the original 1995 film. Tagawa portrayed Shang Tsung, a villain from the franchise, across Mortal Kombat‘s films, television and video games.
His first film role was in The Last Emperor. The 1987 drama won nine Academy Awards, including the coveted best picture category.
Tagawa reflected on the “amazing experience” of working with the director [Bernardo Bertolucci] so early into his career in a 2015 interview. “It was mind boggling. You know, to suddenly be working with one of the top-10 directors in the world, plus the film was in China, I almost blurted out, ‘How much do I have to pay?’ It was just like a dream come true,” he recalled.