Parasite Actor Was 48 – The Hollywood Reporter

Lee Solar-kyun, the South Korean actor who starred in Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning movie Parasite and the Apple TV+ sequence Dr. Mind, has died in an obvious suicide. He was 48.

South Korean information company Yonhap stories that Lee was discovered useless inside a automotive at a park in Seoul on Wednesday morning, native time. Yonhap stories that Lee’s spouse reported to police that the actor had left residence and that she had discovered what gave the impression to be a suicide be aware.

Native media stories that Lee had been underneath investigation over allegations that he had used unlawful medicine. In latest weeks, the South Korean authorities’s ongoing crackdown on onerous medicine has led to a sequence of allegations towards high-profile folks together with actors, singers, socialites and heirs to the nation’s richest households. The Okay-pop singer G-Dragon is amongst those that have been swept up within the crackdown, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing final week.

Yonhap stories that Lee had been questioned 3 times by police, together with for 19 hours over the weekend over his use of marijuana and psychoactive medicine. Lee is reported to have visited Seoul’s Gangnam district on a number of events since early this yr, together with final Saturday, the place he allegedly took medicine. The actor reportedly stated he was tricked into taking medicine by a bar hostess, who then tried to blackmail him.

South Korea’s drug legal guidelines are notoriously robust, and crimes are sometimes punishable by at the very least six months in jail or as much as 14 years for repeat offenders and sellers.

Dubbed “The Voice” by his followers in Korea for his deep voice, Lee is greatest identified to Western audiences for enjoying Park Dong-ik, the patriarch of the wealthy household that owns the home that’s the setting of Bong’s 2019 black comedy thriller Parasite. Lee was awarded a Display screen Actors Guild Award together with the remainder of the Parasite forged.

Born in Seoul in 1975, Lee studied drama on the Korea Nationwide College of Arts. He made his tv breakthrough within the medical drama White Tower (2007) and was positively obtained within the youthful drama Espresso Prince (2007).

On tv, Lee was identified for his collaborations with author Website positioning Sook-hyang, with the pair working collectively on Drama Metropolis, the favored office romantic comedy Pasta (2010) by which the actor performed an conceited chef at an Italian restaurant and the 1997-set drama Miss Korea (2013).

He transitioned to options and in 2012 starred in two of the largest Korean movies of that yr, together with the lead in Byun Younger-joo’s psychological thriller Helpless and the timid husband in Min Kyu-dong’s romantic comedy All About My Spouse.

A flexible actor, Lee labored seamlessly between main movies and massive tv dramas and likewise carried out in theater productions. He starred in three indie movies for prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, together with Evening and Day (2008), Oki’s Film (2010), and No one’s Daughter Haewon (2013).

His different notable movie credit embrace the lead function in A Laborious Day (2014), Kim Seong-hun’s motion thriller that was screened Administrators’ Fortnight part of the Cannes Movie Pageant, and Park Chan-ok’s Paju (2009) which performed the worldwide competition circuit.

In 2021, Lee was the lead on Dr. Mind, Apple TV+’s first Korean-language unique sequence. Within the six-episode sci-fi thriller, he performed Koh Se-won, a chilly, calculating neurologist who tries to garner clues through mind experiments to resolve a household thriller.

Lee is survived by his spouse, the actress Jeon Hye-jin, and their two sons.

In the event you or somebody you already know wants assist, name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255.