Trivia

On December 27, 2023, at 10:30 a.m., Lee was found dead at the age of 48 inside his car at a park in central Seoul. Police responded to the scene after receiving a 112 report In the passenger seat was a charcoal briquette, commonly used in suicides in South Korea.

In October 2023, it was revealed that Lee was booked for internal investigation over suspected drug use. As a result, he voluntarily dropped out of No Way Out, an upcoming thriller drama serial which just started its production days before the revelation of his alleged drug use.

Lee Sun-kyun entered the Korea National University of Arts in 1994, and graduated in the first ever class of its School of Drama.

Despite his burgeoning fame, Lee turned to low-budget arthouse films to polish his acting caliber. Night and Day, Lost in the Mountains, Oki's Movie, Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Our Sunhi were all directed by Hong Sang-soo, an auteur renowned for his realistic portrayal of ordinary lives.

The police earlier received a report from his wife that Lee had left home after "writing a memo akin to a suicide note".

On October 24, he was charged on suspicion of using cannabis and psychoactive drugs, according to Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, and was summoned for questioning on October 28.

He was best known for his roles in the thriller Helpless (2012), romantic comedy All About My Wife (2012), and crime/black comedy A Hard Day (2014).

In 2001, he made his stage acting debut as Brad Majors in the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, and his television debut in the sitcom Lovers.

With Pasta, in which he played a brilliant-but-abrasive chef, Lee successfully shook off his "gentle" TV drama image, and the series' popularity made him a bankable romantic leading man.

He received several other awards, including a nomination for an International Emmy Award.

Lee was appointed ambassador for the Health Insurance Review Agency in 2007, and won an award from the Korea Advertisers Association in 2008.

He headlined the film "A Hard Day", which screened at the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and became a critically acclaimed sleeper hit at the box office.

In 2023, Lee starred alongside Lee Ha-nee (Honey Lee) in Lee Won-suk's comedy Killing Romance. While the film received a tepid reaction upon release, it has since become a cult favorite in Korea, and made its North American debut at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival on July 14, 2023.

At the time of his death, Lee had been investigated for alleged drug consumption.

On the big screen, he received a Best Actor award from the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for his role in Paju (2009).