©Courtesy of New Line Cinema, “Mortal Kombat”

The actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who was born in Japan and trained in the US, one of the most successful Asian actors that appeared in numerous films from the 1990s and 2000s, has passed away.

Tagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, and raised by his Japanese Takarazuka actress mother and Japanese-American father who served in the United States Army and served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Fort Hood, Texas. His mother tongues were English and Japanese, but he also spoke some Russian, Korean and Spanish. Tagawa grew up in various cities as an army brat. After his family moved to Southern California, he started acting while attending Duarte High School.

In his first movie, he played an uncredited swordsman in John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China“, but he gained recognition in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 Oscar-winning film “The Last Emperor” where he played Chang, the emperor’s driver.

But my personal favorite was Eddie Sakamura in the adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel “Rising Sun,” then he had a string of films followed, as a Yakuza boss in “Showdown in Little Tokyo,” as a Hong Kong agent in the Bond film “Licence to Kill,” the attack planning Minoru Genda in “Pearl Harbor,” as the ape General Krull in Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes,” and as the pirate Kabai Sengh in “The Phantom”. Tagawa is arguably best know as the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung in Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 film adaptation of the “Mortal Kombat” game franchise. He reprised the role in the 1997 sequel and various web episodes and games.

His TV resume was also extensive. He was part of the main cast of Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” in the role of trade minister Nobusuke Tagomi, and had multi-episode arcs on “Miami Vice,” “Nash Bridges,” “Space Rangers,” “Revenge” and Netflix’s “Lost in Space”.

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