LEE SUN-KYUN
(2 March 1975 - 27 December 2023)
The death of Lee Sun-kyun at the age of 48 came as something of a shock. Well-known in South Korea as a fine actor, he had of late become celebrated for his appearance in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite in 2019. Lee, along with his cast colleagues, won a Screen Actors’ Guild award. During his career he won many other accolades as well as a nomination for an International Emmy.
His untimely death in December 2023 was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning when his body was discovered in his car in central Seoul. He had a history of taking drugs and in October 2023 was arrested, which led him to leave voluntarily from the set of No Way Out. He was banned from travelling abroad during the investigation but, when that proved to be nothing untoward, Lee suggested that the police do further tests to determine exactly what his state of health was. However, on December 27 he left home, leaving behind a suicide note discovered by his wife.
Lee Sun-Kyun was born in Seoul, South Korea, and attended the Korea National University of Arts, graduating in the first-ever class of the university’s School of Drama. His initial appearance in films was in 2000, in a short called Psycho Drama. He began appearing on television (from 2002) in a sitcom called Lovers, but his big break came in 2007 with the medical drama White Tower, and a romantic series called Coffee Prince. To gain more acting experience, he made some low-budget films to hone his skills in portraying ordinary people in everyday situations. He soon became a popular leading man and won awards for his outstanding and honest acting.
Two films that saw his star rise were the mystery drama Helpless and the romcom All About My Wife, both in 2013. Having worked with the director Kwon Seok-jang on Pasta, they reunited for Golden Time in which Lee played a doctor, and Miss Korea, a political drama set in the 1990s. Then he returned to the theatre where he appeared with his wife Jeon Hye-jin in Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love, and made the film A Hard Day which was a commercial success and featured at Cannes. Then came the really big hit.
This was Parasite, the black comedy thriller about a family who con their way through life by pretending to be what they are not and getting away with the results. Lee was part of an excellent company of players under director Bong Joon-ho who handled the rather suspect black comedy elements with great panache. It premiered at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or. It was nominated for three Golden Globes and won for best foreign film. It had further nominations from the Screen Actors Guild where it won for outstanding performance by a cast, while Bafta awarded it best original screenplay and best film not in the English language. It then scooped four Oscars and was the first non-English language film to win best picture. Lee was also nominated for an Emmy for the 2001 sci-fi thriller Dr Brain.
After that it was not long before Lee’s problems with drugs surfaced. He appeared to be happily married to actress Jeon Hye-jin with their two sons. His death was even sadder because he might have become an even bigger international star. Although the pressures of his life were exacerbated by drugs, he leaves a legacy of performances showing how good he might have become.
MICHAEL DARVELL