GAMING NEWS GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the actor who portrayed Shang Tsung in the original Mortal Kombat movie, has passed away at the age of 75. Acorrding to Tagawa’s family, he died in the morning of December 4 due to complications from a stroke.
Tagawa’s cinematic career spanned nearly four decades and began with a small part in Big Trouble in Little China in 1986 before taking off in 1987 with his role as Chang in The Last Emperor. Some of his other notable films included Licence to Kill, Snow Falling on Cedars, Memoirs of a Geisha, Pearl Harbour, Kubo and the Two Strings, 47 Ronin, and the 2001 reboot of Planet of the Apes.
However, Tagawa was best known to video game fans for his sinister portrayal of the sorcerer Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. Tagawa reprised his role years later in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy before lending his voice and his likeness to the character again in Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.
Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon paid tribute to Tagawa on social media and called him “an amazing voice actor” who “combined danger, swagger and athleticism to his roles and will always be remembered as the man who first brought Shang Tsung to life on film.”
we Lost a Legend Today. Cary-hiroyuki Tagawa”https://twitter.com/CHTOfficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CHTOfficial played Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film and sadly passed away at age 75. We had the privilege of his portrayal on the first MK film but also as an amazing voice actor in the Mortal Kombat 11 game.
Cary was one… pic.twitter.com/iAnTc0odGH— Ed Boon (@noobde) December 5, 2025
Tagawa played another video game villain, Heihachi Mishima, in two Tekken movies, neither of which were as successful as Mortal Kombat. One of his last leading roles in live-action was Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi in Prime Video’s The Man in the High Castle. His final role was Master Eiji in the Netflix anime series Blue Eye Samurai.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
