Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who played Shang Tsung in the original Mortal Kombat film and the video game Mortal Kombat 11, has died at the age of 75.
The star of “The Last Emperor”, “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “The Man in the High Castle” died on Thursday in Santa Barbara as a result of complications following a stroke. Deadline reported.
Tagawa became eminent for playing the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung in the 1995 video game adaptation Mortal Kombat, becoming an instantly recognizable face to an army of fans. In the film, Shang Tsung points to a defenseless Liu Kang holding his brother Chan hostage and declares, “Your brother’s soul is mine!” Tagawa created his “Your Soul is Mine!” it is an iconic part of the Shang Tsung tradition and has survived for 30 years since then. After the original Mortal Kombat film, Tagawa portrayed Shang Tsung multiple times, including in 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11, which featured his voice and physical likeness – much to the delight of fans.
Other film roles include Kwang in the James Bond film License to Kill, Commander Minoru Genda in Pearl Harbor, and Heihachi Mishima in the 2009 film Tekken and its 2014 sequel, Tekken 2: Kazuya’s Revenge.
Tagawa’s last major role was in 2015, when he played one of the main characters in Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle.” His most recent role was as the voice of Eiji the Swordmaker in the first season of the well-received Netflix animated feature Blue Eye Samurai.
Ed Boon, head of development at Mortal Kombat studio NetherRealm, paid tribute to Tagawa in a social media post. “We lost a legend today,” he said. “We had the honor of playing his role in the first MK movie, but also as an incredible voice actor in Mortal Kombat 11. Cary was one of a kind. He combined danger, pride and athleticism in his roles and we will always be remembered as the man who first brought Shang Tsung to life in a movie. Rest in peace. Your soul is eternal.”
Todd Garner, producer of the 2021 film Mortal Kombat and its upcoming sequel, it also hit social mediasaying: “Sad news. Great man. Great actor. We will miss him.”
We lost a Legend today. Cary-hiroyuki Tagawa @CHTOOfficial he played Shang Tsung in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat and sadly died at the age of 75. We had the honor of playing his role in the first MK movie, but also as an amazing voice actor in Mortal Kombat 11.
Cary was one… pic.twitter.com/iAnTc0odGH
— Ed Boon (@noobde) December 5, 2025
Man 🙁
RIP to Cara-Hiroyuki Tagawa
You will always be my Shang Tsung pic.twitter.com/bv7NwaF04I
— Justin Wong (@JWonggg) December 5, 2025
Wesley is the news director at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
