South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, star of Oscar-winning film Parasite, has died aged 48.
Lee was found dead in car at a park in central Seoul on Wednesday morning (December 27), according to news agency Yonhap and the Associated Press. Police had been searching for the actor after his family reported that he had left home after writing what appeared to be a suicide note.
He had been under investigation by the police since October over allegations of illegal drug use. Lee himself had reportedly brought details to authorities, claiming he had been tricked into taking drugs and was being blackmailed, having already given large sums of money to an alleged extortionist. Police had questioned him three times, according to Yonhap, most recently on Saturday (December 23).
An official statement from Lee’s agency, HODU&U Entertainment, said: “There is no way to contain our sorrow and despair. We respectfully ask that you refrain from spreading false facts based on speculation or speculation and malicious reports based on them so that [Lee’s] final journey will be in peace.”
Lee was a well-known actor in South Korea, taking a string of on-screen roles over the past 20 years, but was best known to international audiences for playing patriarch Park Dong-ik in Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite. The 2019 feature won four Oscars, including best picture, having previously become the first South Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Lee was included in a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.
Notable film credits include Kim Seong Hun’s action thriller A Hard Day, which played Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2019, and Park Chan-ok’s Paju. Further titles included Helpless, All About My Wife and Hong Sang-soo’s Night And Day, Oki’s Movie and Nobody’s Daughter Haweon as well as TV series My Mister.
Following his Parasite success, Lee took the lead in 2021’s Dr. Brain, the first Korean-language original series from Apple TV+, for which he received an international Emmy award nomination.
At Cannes earlier this year, he appeared in Kim Tae-gon’s Project Silence, which played in Midnight Screenings, and Jason Yu’s Sleep, which screened in Critics’ Week. Sleep led the Korean box office for three weeks following its local release in September.
Lee also starred in Lee Won-suk’s Killing Romance, which opened New York Asian Film Festival in July with the star in attendance.
Upcoming titles had included TV series No Way Out, but he was reportedly dropped from the production in the wake of the recent allegations.
Lee is survived by his wife, actress Jeon Hye-jin, and their two sons.
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