Ahn, who had battled blood cancer for several years, died at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul, his agency, the Artist Company, announced.
By Asaye Bankole
Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s most celebrated actors, whose prolific 60-year career and warm, gentle public image earned him the nickname “the Nation’s Actor,” died on Monday at the age of 74.
Ahn, who had battled blood cancer for several years, died at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul, his agency, the Artist Company, announced.
“We feel deep sorrow at this sudden and heartbreaking news. We pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and extend our deepest condolences to his bereaved family,” the Artist Company said in a statement.
Born in 1952 in the southeastern city of Daegu to a filmmaker father, Ahn made his acting debut as a child in the 1957 film The Twilight Train. He went on to appear in about 70 films as a child actor before leaving the industry to live a more ordinary life.
In 1970, Ahn enrolled at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, majoring in Vietnamese. He later said that although he graduated with top honors, he struggled to secure jobs at major companies, which likely viewed his Vietnamese specialization as largely impractical after the communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977, convinced that he could still succeed as an actor. His breakthrough came in 1980 with the lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s Good, Windy Days, a hit coming-of-age film that portrayed the struggles of working-class men from rural areas amid South Korea’s rapid industrialisation.
His performance earned him the Best New Actor award at the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, often regarded as South Korea’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.
He went on to star in a string of commercially successful and critically acclaimed films, sweeping Best Actor honours and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s.
Among his most memorable roles were a Buddhist monk in Mandara (1981), a beggar in Whale Hunting (1984), a Vietnam War veteran turned novelist in White Badge (1992), a corrupt police officer in Two Cops (1993), a murderer in Nowhere to Hide (1999), a special forces trainer in Silmido (2003), and a devoted celebrity manager in Radio Star (2006).
Over his career, Ahn amassed dozens of major film awards in South Korea, including a record five Best Actor wins at the Grand Bell Awards an achievement no other South Korean actor has yet matched.
Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning hall at a Seoul hospital will remain open until Friday.
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