Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a prolific character actor known to gamers for his portrayals of Mortal Kombat's evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, has died. A Variety report says Tagawa's death was the result of complications from a stroke he suffered on December 4.
Tagawa was a classic 'that guy' actor, with IMDB listing credits in more than 140 films and television shows going back to an uncredited appearance in the 1986 Kurt Russell classic Big Trouble in Little China. It didn't take long for bigger roles to follow: I recall seeing him first in an episode of Babylon 5 (yes, I am a B5 nerd), in which he played a cool, quiet, capable guy who took care of a problem while other people focused on other things—a description that could probably be applied to many of his roles, really.
