AGI – The South Korean actor died by suicide at the age of 48 Lee Sun-kyun, protagonist of “Parasite”, the film that won the 2020 Oscars with six statuettes, including that for Best Foreign Film. The lifeless body was found in his car in a park in a northern Seoul neighborhood after his wife raised the alarm following the discovery of the suicide note, a kind of will from Lee.
In October, the actor was reported by a host who reported he had been smoking joints and using ketamine, a powerful anesthetic. This led to very serious charges in South Korea, where simple drug use carries a prison sentence of up to five years. Lee defended himself by claiming he didn't know the substances were illegal and denied ever attending parties. The 48-year-old had already been questioned by the police three times in Incheon. The last interrogation last Saturday lasted 19 hours.
© Afp
The discovery of Lee Sun-kyun's body
Mister Park, played by Lee, was one of the most famous characters in “Parasite”, the black splatter comedy by Bong Joon-ho in which the humble Kim family inserts itself like parasites into the everyday life of a middle-class family, the Parks.
The South Korean entertainment world has canceled numerous events as a sign of mourning for the actor. Director Byun Young-joo, who worked with Lee on the 2012 thriller “Helpless,” remembered him with an all-black picture on her Instagram account.
Lee was married to actress Jeon Hye-jin and had two small children. His films also include “All About My Wife” and “Sleep” (screened out of competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival) as well as numerous television appearances. The lawsuit has already cost him the removal of some commercials and exclusion from the new series “No Way Out,” a TV series that began filming last October.
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