Lee Byung-hun

At 53 years old, Lee Byung-hun has this physical status:

Lee Byung-hun (born July 12, 1970) is a South Korean actor, singer and model.

He has received critical acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably Joint Security Area (2000); A Bittersweet Life (2005); The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); the television series Iris (2009); I Saw the Devil (2010); and Masquerade (2012).

His critically acclaimed film Inside Men (2015) won him the Best Actor prize in three prestigious award ceremonies: 52nd Baeksang Art Awards, 37th Blue Dragon Awards and 53rd Grand Bell Awards — a feat that has yet to be repeated.

Lee has five films—Joint Security Area, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Masquerade, Inside Men and Master—on the list of highest-grossing films in South Korea. In the United States, he is known for portraying Storm Shadow in G.I.

Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and its sequel G.I.

Joe: Retaliation (2013), and starring alongside Bruce Willis in Red 2 (2013).

He portrayed T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015) and Billy Rocks, a knife-wielding gunslinger, in The Magnificent Seven (2016).

Lee was the first South Korean actor to present an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lee and Ahn Sung-ki were the first South Korean actors to imprint their hand and foot prints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Personal life

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. He has a younger sister, Lee Eun-hee, who won the Miss Congeniality portion of Miss Korea in 1996. He graduated from Hanyang University with a major in French Literature and the Graduate School of Chung-Ang University with a major in Theater and Cinematography. In his spare time, Lee Byung-hun practices taekwondo.

Lee was previously romantically linked with fellow All In lead Song Hye-kyo beginning in the early-2000s. The relationship, though kept completely low-key and rarely publicized, lasted fifteen months before they split in mid-June 2004. Lee married actress Lee Min-jung on August 10, 2013 at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. The couple had briefly dated in 2006, then resumed their relationship in 2012. Lee's wife gave birth to their first child, a son, Lee Joon-hoo, on March 31, 2015. After he had to clear some debts following his father's death, Lee fell into a depression. He then started to suffer panic disorders, and found it difficult to attend award ceremonies. Lee credits his wife with helping him overcome his mental health challenges.

On December 9, 2009, Lee’s ex-girlfriend Kwon Mi-yeon filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was tricked into having a sexual relationship with the star based on the promise of marriage. She claimed Lee caused her mental anguish and physical damage along with claims that Lee is a chronic gambler and sued for 100 million won. Lee’s agency, BH Entertainment, countered that her claims were all false and that the lawsuit was retaliatory in nature due to the breakup. Lee countersued Kwon for defamation and extortion.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, TV show host Kang Byung-kyu appeared on the set of the TV drama Iris that Lee was working on at the time. He was accused of bringing in gangsters and causing a disturbance due to a conflict with a producer that he claimed spread rumors that Kang was behind the feud between Lee and Kwon. Due to this incident Kang was arrested on assault charges. Kang was also later indicted on charges of blackmail and defamation with prosecutors alleging that Kang and Kwon colluded to blackmail Lee for large sums of money in November of 2009 before Kwon went on to file her civil lawsuit in December after Lee refused to pay.

Lee was cleared of the illegal gambling charges on March 19, 2010, with prosecutors citing no evidence. Kwon’s claim for damages was eventually dropped in August of 2010 due to her lack of participation in proceedings. Kang was eventually sentenced to one year in prison and three years probation in 2013 on his fraud and assault charges.

On August 28, 2014, Lee was blackmailed by singer Dahee from K-pop girl group GLAM and model Lee Ji-yeon for 5 billion won (about $4 million) in exchange for not releasing, on the internet, a compromising video of him making sexual jokes while drinking with them on July 3. Dahee and Lee Ji-yeon were arrested on September 1, after Lee reported the crime to police when they handed him two suitcases to transport the money. It was later revealed that the crime was fully intentional and pre-planned, as both Dahee and Lee Ji-yeon looked for plane tickets to escape to Europe and purchased two suitcases to be used for transporting the money. Moreover, the two women attempted to film an additional video of Lee hugging Lee Ji-yeon by secretly placing a smartphone in a kitchen sink, but they failed to do so. However, Lee Ji-yeon claimed that the blackmailing was an impulsive act after Lee broke up with her, for which Lee Byung-hun's agency released an official statement stating that Lee had not once met her alone and that he mentioned to the two women that he wanted to stop meeting them when he sensed ulterior motives from them after talking about their financial difficulties, demanding he buy them a house. The final trial was held at the Seoul District Court on January 15, 2015, where Dahee was sentenced to a year in jail and Lee Ji-yeon to a year and two months. In February, following the sentencing, Lee requested a pardon for the women while the prosecution in charge felt that the sentence was too lenient. In March, both women, who were in jail for six months, received a suspended sentence for two years following Lee's pardon request. The K-pop girl group GLAM was disbanded following the sentencing of Dahee.

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Career

Lee's career began in 1991 after a KBS talent audition and his debut in the television drama Asphalt My Hometown. In My Memory, Lee drew notice with the action thriller Asphalt Man and romantic film The Harmonium, but it was only in 2000 that he made his breakthrough with Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area that he made his breakthrough. The film debuted at the box office and became the highest grossing Korean film at the time. The Busan Film Critics Awards have given Lee's Best Actor award.

When he appeared in melodramas Beautiful Days and Bungee Jumping of Their Own in 2001, his fame began to rise. He was named Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2003 for his role in the poker drama All In. Lee's film and television work earned him a surge in adulation in Asia, particularly Japan.

He concentrated on film from 2005, receiving critical acclaim for his role in Kim Jee-woon's film A Bittersweet Life, which was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Lee was nominated for Best Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Grand Bell Awards, and he was rewarded at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards, and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.

In the "kimchi western" The Good, the Bad, the Weird's first villain role, he reunited with director Kim Jee-woon. The film was not in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Lee's dazzling role in the film earned him more worldwide attention. This resulted in Lee's debut in Hollywood, where he portrayed Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller.

He appeared in I Come with the Rain opposite American actor Josh Hartnett and Japanese actor Takuya Kimura.

In late 2009, Lee returned to television as a spiespionage action thriller Iris as a covert agent embroiled in a global conspiracy. According to reports, he earned over 100 million dollars per episode for his role, the third highest in the country's drama history. Iris was one of Asia's most expensive shows ever produced, and it was a smash hit. Lee's success earned him the Grand Prize at the KBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Lee starred in I Saw the Devil with Choi Min-sik, his third collaboration with Kim Jee-woon, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. At the Baeksang Arts Awards, his portrayal of the intelligence agent received him the Grand Prize.

Lee has been praised for his portrayal of two characters in Masquerade's lavish period drama. The film was a box office hit, becoming the seventh film in Korean history to surpass ten million admissions. Lee was named Best Actor at the Grand Bell Awards for his appearance. Lee and Ahn Sung-ki became the first Korean actors to leave their hand and foot prints on Grauman's Chinese Theatre's forecourt in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 23, 2012. He was recognized as a rising star in Hollywood for his role in the role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and its sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

In 2013, Lee resurfaced as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Retribution. Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich appeared in the American film RED 2, the follow-up to the 2010 action-comedy, as co-star John Malkovich.

Lee starred in Memories of the Sword in 2015 after his sex-chat scandal. The film was shot in late 2013 and was supposed to be released in 2014, but it was postponed due to Lee's scandal. He received accolades for his scene-stealing work as a young and aspiring warrior with a low profile, but the film didn't do well, and was chastised for its tumultuous plot. Lee played T-1000 in Terminator Genisys opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger the same year. He appeared in Inside Men, Woo Min-ho's political crime drama that became the top grossing R-rated film of all time at the Korean Box Office. Lee, who was described as the film's "star," received critical acclaim and swept Best Actor awards at various film festival shows.

Lee appeared in the American crime thriller Misconduct in 2016. Lee received the "Best Foreign Language Film" award with actress Sofia Vergara on February 28, 2016. He was the first Korean actor to receive an award at the Oscars. Billy Rocks, a knife-wielding gunman, appeared in The Magnificent Seven with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke last year.

Lee starred in the crime drama Master and then in the mystery drama Single Rider, returning to Korea.

Lee began working with the United Talent Agency, a major Hollywood company. In the Hollywood action film Radiance, he was cast. Patrick Lussier, who worked with Lee in Terminator Genisys, is the film's producer. Lee performed in The Fortress' historical epic and the comedic drama Keys to the Heart.

Mr. Sunshine, a historical war drama written by Kim Eun-sook, made his television debut in 2018. The series was a commercial and critical success, and Lee won the Grand Prize at the 6th APAN Star Awards.

Lee appeared in the action film Ashfall in 2019. Lee appeared in the political drama The Man Standing Next in 2020. Both films were box office hits, and Lee's brand, as a lead actor, was a success. Lee is supposed to appear in Emergency Declaration, a political thriller aviation disaster film.

He appeared on Netflix's survival drama Squid Game as the Front Man in September 2021. In the 15th Asian Film Awards, he was named with the Asia Film Excellence Award. He is the first Korean actor to be nominated for the award, which is given for outstanding achievements in Asian cinema and culture.

Lee appeared in the tvN television series Our Blues, written by Noh Hee-kyung in 2022. Concrete Utopia, Um Tae-hwa's tragedy thriller film, will also stars Park Bo-young and Park Seo-joon.

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