Lee Solar-kyun, a South Korean actor who starred within the 2020 Oscar finest image winner “Parasite,” died Wednesday morning, in keeping with the Related Press and the South Korean information company Yonhap. He was 48.
He was discovered useless in a automotive in a central Seoul park, in keeping with AP. Police had been on the lookout for Lee after his household claimed he wrote a suicide notice and left house early on Wednesday.
Lee had just lately been below police investigation for alleged unlawful drug use. South Korea’s Incheon Metropolitan Police Company had been investigating Lee and 7 different folks over alleged drug use; Lee claimed to be the sufferer of blackmail by one other particular person being investigated and allegedly misplaced tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} to extortion. In response to Yonhap, police questioned Lee 3 times, as just lately as final Saturday, for his alleged use of marijuana and different medication on the house of a hostess of a high-end bar in Seoul a number of instances earlier this yr. He claimed to have been tricked and didn’t know what he was taking.
In 2020, “Parasite” gained 4 Academy Awards, together with finest image, director for Bong Joon-ho, unique screenplay and worldwide characteristic movie for South Korea. It additionally gained the Palme d’Or on the Cannes Movie Pageant, changing into the primary South Korean movie to do obtain the honour. The “Parasite” forged, together with Lee, gained a Display Actors Guild award for excellent efficiency by a forged in a movement image.
Within the movie, Lee performed Park Dong-ik, the daddy of the rich Park household who unknowingly hires members of the scamming, lower-class Kim household into his house to assist along with his kids and run his family. When the ruse is lastly revealed, Kim Ki-taek (Music Kang-ho) kills Mr. Park in a match of rage at his daughter’s party.
After rising to fame in “Parasite,” Lee starred within the Apple TV+ sequence “Dr. Mind,” its first South Korean sequence, and was nominated for finest actor on the 2022 Worldwide Emmy Awards. He additionally starred in South Korean tasks like “Payback,” “Diary of a Prosecutor,” “My Mister,” “Killing Romance,” “Kingmaker” and lots of extra within the 2000s and 2010s.
Lee was a really acquainted determine in Korean cinema. In Cannes this yr he appeared in “Mission Silence” and “Sleep.” The latter had its business launch in September and topped the Korean field workplace charts for 3 weeks.
Lee is survived by his spouse, actor Jeon Hye-jin, and their two kids.
