'Parasite' actor Lee Sun-kyun dies at 48

Lee Sun-kyun, a South Korean actor who starred in the 2020 Oscar Best Picture winner Parasite, died Wednesday morning, Variety reported citing the Associated Press and the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Lee Sun-kyun was 48.

He was discovered dead in a car in a central Seoul park, as per Associated Press. Police were hunting for Lee after his family reported he left home early Wednesday with a suicide note.

Lee has recently been the subject of an investigation by the police for potential illegal drug use. The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency in South Korea had been investigating Lee and seven other people for alleged drug use; Lee claimed to have been the victim of blackmail by another person being probed and had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the extortion.

According to Yonhap, authorities questioned Lee three times as recently as last Saturday for his alleged usage of marijuana and other drugs earlier this year at the house of a hostess of a high-end bar in Seoul. He stated he had been duped and had no idea what he was ingesting.

Parasite won four Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Picture, Director for Bong Joon-ho, original screenplay, and South Korean international feature film. It also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making it the first South Korean film to achieve the honor. Lee and the cast of "Parasite" earned a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.

Lee portrayed Park Dong-ik, the patriarch of the wealthy Park family who mistakenly employs members of the fraudulent, lower-class Kim family to assist in caring for his children and running his household. When the hoax is finally discovered, Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) kills Mr Park at his daughter's birthday celebration in a fit of wrath.

Following his success in Parasite, Lee starred in Apple TV+'s first South Korean series, Dr Brain, and was nominated for best actor at the 2022 International Emmy Awards. In the 2000s and 2010s, he also appeared in South Korean films such as Payback, Diary of a Prosecutor, My Mister, Killing Romance, Kingmaker, and many others.

Lee was a well-known figure in Korean cinema. This year in Cannes, he starred in Project Silence and Sleep. The latter was released in September and topped the Korean box office for three weeks.

Lee leaves behind his wife, actress Jeon Hye-jin, and their two children.