Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa: Biography, Facts and Career
Who is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa? An evergreen, sourced profile: biography, key facts and career.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Japanese: 田川 洋行, romanized: Tagawa Hiroyuki; 27 September 1950 – 4 December 2025) was a Japanese actor and film producer who was best known for his role as the evil shapeshifter sorcerer Shang Tsung in various works of the Mortal Kombat franchise: he first played the character in the 1995 film adaptation, and reprised it in 2013 for the television series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and in 2019 for the video game Mortal Kombat 11. He appeared as Lt. A.J. Shimamura on 15 episodes of the American television series Nash Bridges. Often cast as villains, he became known for his film roles in: The Last Emperor (1987), the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), American Me (1992), Rising Sun (1993), Mortal Kombat (1995), The Phantom (1996), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), Planet of the Apes (also 2001), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Tekken (2009), 47 Ronin (2013), Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge (2014), and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). He starred as Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi on the Amazon Prime television series The Man in the High Castle (2015–2018), and Hiroki Watanabe on the Netflix series Lost in Space (2018–2021).
Quick facts about Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
- Full name: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
- Born: 1950-09-27
- Nationality: United States
- Known as: Actor
- Wikidata ID: Q381799
Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa?
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Japanese: 田川 洋行, romanized: Tagawa Hiroyuki; 27 September 1950 – 4 December 2025) was a Japanese actor and film producer who was best known for his role as the evil shapeshifter sorcerer Shang Tsung in various works of the Mortal Kombat franchise: he first played the character in the 1995 film adaptation, and reprised it in 2013 for the television series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and in 2019 for the video game Mortal Kombat 11.
What nationality is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa?
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is United States.
When was Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa born?
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was born on 1950-09-27.



