Lee Sun-kyun (March 2, 1975 - December 27, 2023) was a South Korean actor who spent two decades building a reputation as one of Korean screen's most dependable leading men. Global recognition came with Bong Joon-ho's Parasite (2019) - the first non-English film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture - in which he played the wealthy, oblivious patriarch of the Park family. At home he was equally admired for the drama My Mister (2018) and for Dr. Brain (2021), Apple TV+'s first Korean-language original, which earned him an International Emmy nomination. He died at 48 in Seoul while under police investigation on suspicion of drug use.
A South Korean court heard a case against a former police officer accused of leaking information from the investigation into I Son-kyun - the state prosecutor's office proposed a sentence of 3 years imprisonment.
The International Film Festival in Busan posthumously awarded I Son-kyun the Korea Cinema Award and dedicated a special retrospective section to him featuring six of his films and television series.
Director Bong Joon-ho held a press conference in Seoul, at which a group of artists called for an investigation into the actions of police and media in the case of I Son-kyun.
I Son-kyun was found dead on December 27, 2023 in his car in a park in central Seoul; at the time of his death, he was under police investigation on suspicion of drug use, with urine tests coming back negative.
