Lee Byung-hun

Lee Byung-hun
Lee Byung-hun at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival in Ontario, Canada.
Born	(1970-08-13) August 13, 1970 Namhansanseong-myeon, Gwangju County, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea (now Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea)
Nationality	South Korean
Occupation	Actor, model, singer
Agent	BH Entertainment
Children	1
Website	www.leebyunghun.kr
Korean name
Hangul	이병헌
Hanja	李炳憲
Revised Romanization	I Byeongheon
McCune–Reischauer	Ri Pyŏnghŏn

Lee Byung-hun (Korean: 이병헌; born August 13, 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). Lee has starred in four films—Masquerade, Inside Men, Joint Security Area and The Good, the Bad, the Weird—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 a T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015). 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.^[1][2] Lee, along with 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.

Career

Lee's career began in 1991 after auditioning in a KBS talent audition and making his debut in the television drama Asphalt My Hometown.^[3] He continued to act in various television dramas until he made his big breakthrough in 2000 with Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area. The film broke the box office record and became the highest grossing Korean film at the time.^[4] Lee's role as a border-guard soldier won him the Best Actor award at the Busan Film Critics Awards.^[5]

In 2001, his popularity continued to climb when he played the lead alongside Choi Ji-woo in the melodrama Beautiful Days. In 2003, he received the Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards for his role in the poker drama All In.^[6]

From 2005, he focused on film, earning critical acclaim for his performance in A Bittersweet Life directed by Kim Jee-woon which was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.^[7] Lee was nominated for Best Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Grand Bell Awards, and won at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.

He reunited with director Kim Jee-woon in The Good, the Bad, the Weird, taking on his first villain role.^[8] The film was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.^[9] The following year he appeared in I Come with the Rain opposite American actor Josh Hartnett and Japanese actor Takuya Kimura. He then made his Hollywood debut as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, also starring Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller.^[10]

Lee returned to television in late 2009 in the espionage action thriller Iris as a secret agent who finds himself at the center of an international conspiracy. It was one of the most expensive shows ever produced with filming locations in Hungary, Japan as well as South Korea.^[11] It became one of the highest rated dramas of 2009 and his performance earned him the Grand Prize at the KBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards.^[12]

In 2010 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. His portrayal of the intelligence agent won him the Grand Prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards.^[13]

In 2013, he reprised his role as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.^[14][15] On June 23, 2012, Lee, along with Ahn Sung-ki, became the first Korean actors to leave their hand and foot prints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. He was recognised as an emerging star in Hollywood for his role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and its sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation.^[16] In October, he won Best Actor at the Grand Bell Awards for his dual role in the lavish period drama Gwanghae.^[17] The film was a box office hit, becoming the 7th film in Korean history to surpass 10 million admissions.^[18]

Lee co-starred in the American film RED 2 (2013), the sequel to the 2010 action-comedy hit RED, alongside Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich.^[19][20] Lee played a T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[21] Lee and Schwarzenegger previously met in 2010, when Schwarzenegger visited Korea while Lee was the Californian Tourism Ambassador.

On 28 February 2016, Lee attended the 88th Academy Awards and presented the "Best Foreign Language Film" award with actress Sofia Vergara. He was the first Korean actor to present an award at the Oscars.^[22]

Lee at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival for The Good, the Bad, the Weird

Other work

Lee formed a management company, BH Entertainment, which manages many actors including Han Hyo-joo, Go Soo, and Han Ji-min. He owns a shop, BHNC, which sells hats, scarfs and wallets.^[23]

Lee Byung-hun is noted in the video game industry for providing his likeness for the main character, Wayne Holden, in the 2006 game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, for the Xbox 360, PS3 & PC.

Personal life

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. He has a younger sister, Lee Eun-hee, who was 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.

Lee dated his All In co-star Song Hye-kyo; they broke up in 2004. In his spare time, Lee Byung-hun practices taekwondo.^[24][25]

Lee married actress Lee Min-jung on August 10, 2013 at the Grand Hyatt Seoul.^[26] The couple had briefly dated in 2006, then resumed their relationship in 2012.^[27] Lee's wife gave birth to their first child, a son, Lee Joon-hoo born on March 31, 2015.^[28]

Blackmail scandal

In September 2014, Lee was embroiled in a legal battle with two women, singer Dahee from K-pop girl group GLAM and model Lee Ji-yeon who blackmailed him for large sums of money in exchange for not revealing a compromising video of the actor Lee making sexual jokes. The two women were sentenced to a year and a year and two months in jail respectively, both suspended for two years.^[29]

Filmography

Film

Television

Other

Discography

Albums

Single

Soundtrack

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee Byung-hun.

• Official website (Korean)
• Lee Byung-hun at the Internet Movie Database
• Lee Byung-hun at the Korean Movie Database
• Lee Byung-hun at AllMovie
• Lee Byung-hun at HanCinema