'Mortal Kombat' passes away at 75

The Mortal Kombat franchise actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa became a “game changer”, passed away at the age of 75 in Santa Barbara.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was born on September 27, 1950, in Japan.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he died due to complications from a stroke.

He began his career as an actor with Paul W.S. Anderson’s original 1995 film. The late actor starred in various Mortal Kombat projects.

He portrayed Shang Tsung, a villain from the franchise, across Mortal Kombat‘s film, television and video game slate.

Tagawa appeared in the first 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, followed by appearances in the 1997 sequel Annihilation via archival footage.

Additionally, he portrayed the villainous character in the 2013 series Mortal Kombat: Legacy; one 2015 episode of Mortal Kombat X: Generations; and the video game Mortal Kombat 11, including its follow-ups Aftermath (2020) and Ultimate (2020).

The Amazon’s television series actor secured his first film role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.

Reflecting on the “amazing experience” of working with Bertolucci so early into his career in a 2015 interview with AV Club, Tagawa raved, “It was mind-boggling”.

“It was just like a dream come true,” he recalled. Later, the Japanese-American actor went on to star in a slew of notable films, including License to Kill (1989), Planet of the Apes (2001), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and Tekken (2010).

Tagawa is survived by his wife, Sally; his three children, Calen, Byrnne and Cana; and two grandchildren, River and Thea Clayton.