The South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, protagonist of the Oscar-winning film Parasites, was found dead in a car yesterday. Lee, 48, was being investigated for alleged drug use. The actor’s lifeless body was found in a central Seoul parking lot at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported. A charcoal briquette was found in the co-pilot’s seat, so everything indicates that the actor died of poisoning after inhaling carbon monoxide.
The search for the performer began after his family alerted the police that the actor had left an apparent farewell letter at his home, so everything points to Lee taking his own life. The actor was not taken to the hospital, as he was pronounced dead by the emergency services in the same parking lot where he was found.
Lee was being investigated on suspicion of using marijuana and other illegal drugs in South Korea. The actor had submitted to three interrogations – the most recent last weekend, in which he was with the authorities for 19 hours – after being accused of having consumed the aforementioned substances at the residence of a woman who was working at an upscale bar in the Gangnam district on several occasions since the beginning of the year.
In the aforementioned interrogations, Lee always maintained that this woman had tricked him into consuming the substances, without him knowing what he was taking. In addition, the actor had tested negative for drugs in the reagent test he underwent during the investigation, and also in a laboratory test carried out by the National Forensic Service, in November.
Just two days ago, the interpreter had submitted a request to the police department that is conducting the investigation to submit to the polygraph test, claiming his innocence. In addition, Lee filed a lawsuit in October against two people, including the escort girl, for blackmailing him after news of his alleged drug use emerged. The woman was arrested last month and police are understood to have applied for an arrest warrant for the other person, according to Yonhap.
“I feel that it is a little too late, but I have finished the interrogations with the police about the case of blackmail”, he said last weekend, after his last visit to the police stations. “I hope that the police will wisely determine which witnesses are more reliable between those of the blackmailers and mine.”
Lee rose to international fame thanks to his role as Park Dong-Ik, head of a millionaire family with a terrible secret, in Parasites, Bong Joon-ho’s film that won four Oscars in 2020. His role led to him winning a SAG Award for his performance that same year. Among other works, his roles in the television series Dr. Brain (2022), My Mister (2018) or Coffee Prince (2007).
The actor had been married since 2009 to fellow actress Jeon Hye-jin, with whom he formed one of the most established couples on the South Korean social scene. The couple has two children, aged 14 and 12.