RIP Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
 

Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has passed at 75. He was known of course for being Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat movie in 1995 as well as in Mortal Kombat Legacy in 2013 and the game Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019. He was often cast as villains/mobsters such as in Showdown in Little Tokyo, Bulletproof, American Dragons, Kickboxer 2, Tekken & Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge, The Man in the Iron Fists 2, and many others; he was in License to Kill, 47 Ronin, Snow Falling on Cedars, MacGyver, Miami Vice, Mission Impossible, Baywatch, Nash Bridges, Walker Texas Ranger, Johnny Tsunami & Johnny Kapahala: Back On Board, Hawaii Five-0, NCIS Los Angeles, etc...

He guest starred in TMNT 2012 as Sumo Kuma.

Rest well Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, your soul is free.

Sad to see this news. He was great as Shang Tsung. Didn't know he appeared in Legacy. I thought it was awesome he was in MK11 although I haven't played it. It's cool that was into playing the character and returning so many years later for the fan base.

I saw him in some other things but can't remember what.

Yeah he did such a great job at Shang Tsung, a lot of the future incarnations of the character were stylised after his likeness.

NOOOOO! He was supposed to be immortal!

Shang Tsung dies the day Netflix acquires WB.

That can't be a coincidence.

Kind of annoying to see all of these blurbs online appearing about "Shan Tsung actor dies!"

He did way, WAY more than just that role, and that was far from his best work.

Disappointed to hear this, although I had no idea that he was in his 70's....
We are all at an age now where all of our guys from the 90's are basically authentically old.

The 90s are to the kids nowadays what the 60s where to me and my peers when were kids in the 90s.

I dunno what kids nowadays grow up hearing about the 90s nowadays, though. I grew up hearing and seeing many descriptions of the 60s on TV back in the 90s and early 2000s. I dunno if modern day TV shows make references to the 90s often or not.

He was an amazing Shang Tsung for all of us Mortal Kombat fans during its heyday. And he did revisit the role multiple times. I always loved seeing him pop up in any movie because he was always great in them. I also want to shout out his role in The Phantom (1996) which always happily surprised me when he shows up in that movie. He will be missed.

He was also Heihachi in that one Tekken movie.

History repeats and society renews and it keeps rolling over and over again.....