The prolific actor, best known for playing villains on screen, was discovered by director Bernardo Bertolucci for his film 'The Last Emperor' in 1987. He went on to appear in more than 30 films, including the Mortal Kombat franchise and James Bond film 'License to Kill'.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the prolific actor best known for his roles in the films “Mortal Kombat” and The Last Emperor, as well as the TV series The Man in the High Castle, has died aged 75.
The Tokyo-born actor died due to complications from a stroke, his manager, Margie Weiner, confirmed.
“Cary was a rare soul: generous, thoughtful, and endlessly committed to his craft,” she said. “His loss is immeasurable. My heart is with his family, friends, and all who loved him.”
Tagawa was raised mostly in the US South while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to US mainland Army bases. His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck.
Tagawa's decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film The Last Emperor. Since then, he appeared in such films as Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes and the James Bond film License to Kill.
Still, Tagawa was best known as the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung in the film, TV and video game iterations of the Mortal Kombat franchise. He began playing the character in New Line’s 1995 film adaptation and was also featured in the 1997 follow-up Mortal Kombat Annihilation.
He reprised the role with guest appearances in the 2013 TV series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and one episode of Mortal Kombat X: Generations in 2015.
Tagawa also played the Baron in Memoirs of a Geisha, a 2005 movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl’s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.
In 2015, Tagawa took on his final major screen role as Nobusuke Tagomi, the trade minister of the Pacific States of America, in Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, set in an alternate post-World War II reality where the US is split under Japanese and Nazi control.
The actor is survived by three children, Calen, Brynne and Cana; and his two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.
