Lee Sun-kyun, a well-known South Korean actor famous for his role in the Academy Award-winning movie “Parasite,” was discovered dead in a car in Seoul on Wednesday after police had been intensively investigating his alleged drug use. Officers and emergency personnel initially found Lee in what they believed to be an unconscious state, but he was later confirmed dead by Seoul’s Seongbuk police station.
Following a report of Lee’s disappearance, the police had been searching for the 48-year-old actor, who was later found dead in his car parked on a street in northern Seoul. While the police did not provide further details, South Korean media reported that Lee’s family had informed the police that he left home after writing a message akin to a suicide note.
Mr. Lee’s body was taken to a nearby hospital, according to Seongbuk police. An acclaimed actor, Lee appeared in the groundbreaking film “Parasite,” which made history as the first non-English-language film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2021, he received a Screen Actors Guild award for his role in the same film and was also nominated for best actor at the International Emmy Awards for his performance in the sci-fi thriller “Dr. Brain.”
Prior to “Parasite,” Lee had already achieved stardom in South Korea, with popular roles in TV series such as “Coffee Prince,” “Behind The White Tower,” “Pasta,” and “My Mister.” Lee had been embroiled in a police probe into allegations of illegal drug use at the residence of a bar hostess, a situation that had drawn significant media attention. He had insisted that he was tricked into taking drugs and claimed he did not know what he was ingesting.