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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has died aged 75.
Mortal Kombat and James Bond star Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa dies aged 75
The Mortal Kombat actor, who portrayed evil sorcerer Shang Tsung within the movie franchise, handed away in Santa Barbara, California, on Thursday (04.12.25).
Tagawa’s publicist Penny Vizcarra confirmed to PEOPLE that he died attributable to issues from a stroke.
His household stated in an announcement: “Cary was a uncommon soul: beneficiant, considerate, and endlessly dedicated to his craft.
“His loss is immeasurable. My coronary heart is along with his household, pals, and all who liked him.”
Tagawa additionally featured in James Bond film Licence to Kill and 2001’s Pearl Harbour.
However the actor was greatest identified for his portrayal of Shang Tsung, who he first performed in 1995 movie Mortal Kombat.
He reprised the position in 1997 film Mortal Kombat Annihilation and even took on the half within the 2013 TV sequence Mortal Kombat: Legacy, in addition to one episode of 2015’s Mortal Kombat X: Generations.
The 1995 Mortal Kombat film earned greater than $120 million at field workplace, from a $20 million price range, and Tagawa believes the movie dropped on the “good” time when the online game was at peak reputation.
He beforehand stated: “It was the right timing in that Mortal Kombat as a online game, on the time we did the movie, was on quantity 4 or 5 and that the influence of the movie actually needed to do with the construct of the video video games.”
The late star additionally praised the movie’s director Paul W.S. Anderson for matching “actually upbeat, driving steel music” with the movement image.
Tagawa added: “He was the primary one in martial arts historical past to use such music – actually upbeat, driving steel music. You couldn’t sit nonetheless once you heard the music. And it matched the motion so properly.”
The actor was born in Tokyo, however his father, who labored for the US Military, moved their household to Fort Bragg, North Carolina when the star was simply 5 years previous, and he later lived in Louisiana and Texas.
Tagawa began performing at California’s Duarte Excessive College after his household had relocated to the Golden State.
However he discovered it “fairly robust” being Japanese and residing within the US within the Nineteen Fifties.
In 2010, he instructed Deadline: “Being Japanese and residing within the south in the course of the ’50s was fairly robust.”
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