Lee Sun-kyun, who is known for his role in the 2020 Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite,’ has died at 48. According to several news outlets, on Wednesday (December 27) around 10:30 a.m., the actor was found dead, from an apparent suicide. His body was discovered inside a car at a park in central Seoul, South Korea, with a charcoal briquette sitting on the passenger seat. His death arrives amid an ongoing drug investigation for suspected drug use.
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It’s reported that before being found, Sun-kyun, who starred in the Best Picture-winning film ‘Parasite,’ was reported missing by his family in Seoul, South Korea. Upon confirming the news to the media, South Korea’s emergency office said that authorities had been searching for the actor after his family claimed they found a memo, similar to a suicide note, after he left home early on Wednesday.
Prior to Sun-kyun’s passing, he had been arrested and was under investigation by South Korea’s Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency over drug use allegations, which arrived amid an ongoing crackdown on illegal drug use by the government in South Korea. Sun-kyun and seven other people were targeted over alleged drug use. Subsequently, the actor reportedly dropped out of the drama ‘No Way Out,’ which had just recently started production.
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Local media outlets reported that the actor had been questioned about three times by the authorities, as recently as this past Saturday, which reportedly lasted for 19 hours. However, the actor reportedly said that he was tricked into taking drugs. He reportedly claimed that he was a victim of blackmail by another person being investigated, and he allegedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to extortion.
He has been accused of using marijuana and other drugs several times earlier this year at the home of a hostess at a high-end bar in Seoul’s Gangnam district. However, he claimed he didn’t know what he was taking. Sun-kyun came up negative in both tests conducted during his police investigations and a lab-based drug test by the National Forensic Service last month. The actor even tried to maintain his innocence by submitting a polygraph test request to South Korea’s Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency.
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In the film ‘Parasite,’ Lee Sun-kyun starred as a wealthy architect whose family lives a pleasantly luxurious life. After rising to fame from the Oscar-winning film, he starred in the Apple TV+ series ‘Dr. Brain,’ the first South Korean show on the platform. Sun-kyun was also nominated for Best Actor at the 2022 International Emmy Awards. He also starred in South Korean projects like ‘Payback,’ ‘Diary of a Prosecutor,’ ‘My Mister,’ ‘Killing Romance,’ ‘Kingmaker,’ etc.
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