Mortal Kombat movie and game star Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa dies

Actor Hiroyuki Tagawa, who played Shang Tsung in the original “Mortal Kombat” movie, has died at the age of 75. According to Tagawa's family, Tagawa died of complications from a stroke on the morning of December 4.

Tagawa's film career spanned nearly four decades, starting with a small role in Big Trouble in Little China in 1986 and taking off in 1987 with the role of Chang in The Last Emperor. Some of his other notable films include License to Kill, Snow on the Cedars, Memoirs of a Geisha, Pearl Harbor, Kubo and the Two Strings, 47 Ronin, and the 2001 reboot of War for the Planet of the Apes.

However, Tagawa is best known to video game fans for his sinister portrayal of the wizard Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. A few years later, Tagawa reprized his role in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy before lending his voice and likeness to the character again in Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon pays tribute to Tagawa social media Calling him “an amazing voice actor” who “brings danger, swagger and athleticism to his character, he will always be remembered as the first to bring Shang Tsung to film.”

Tagawa played another video game villain, Heihachi Mishima, in two “Tekken” movies, but neither movie was as successful as “Mortal Kombat.” One of his last leading roles in a live-action film was as Trade Secretary Shinsuke Tagomi in Prime Video's The Man in the High Castle. His last role was as Master Eiji in the Netflix anime series Blue Eyed Samurai.