Overview
- He died around 9 a.m. Monday at a Seoul hospital, according to the Korea Film Actor's Association.
- He had been in intensive care after collapsing while choking on food at his home earlier in the week.
- Over more than six decades he appeared in roughly 140 films and was affectionately known as the 'Nation's Actor.'
- His work spanned landmark titles such as Silmido (2003), and his most recent appearance was in Noryang: Deadly Sea (2023).
- He earned Best Actor honors at the Blue Dragon Film Awards in 2006 and the Daejong Film Awards in 2007 and served as a UNICEF ambassador since the early 1990s.