The South Korean actor, who starred in more than 170 films, died on Monday January 5 in Seoul. He had been battling blood cancer for years.
South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki, who has appeared in more than 170 films since the 1950s including The Servant (1960) et Silmido (2003), died on Monday January 5 at the age of 74, Yonhap reported. Ahn Sung-ki was in intensive care at a hospital in Seoul after choking on food the week before his death, and had been battling blood cancer for years, the South Korean news agency said. His family, his wife and two sons, surrounded him with their care until the end. Ahn Sung-ki was revered by movie fans and his peers at home.
Born in 1952, Ahn Sung-ki began his acting career at the age of five in the film Twilight Train in 1957, directed by Kim Ki-young, a close friend of his father. In 1959 he received the San Francisco Film Festival Special Prize for Defiance of a Teenager, also directed by Kim Ki-young.
Also read
Death at 70 of Béla Tarr, major and radical figure of Hungarian cinema
Skip the ad
The actor starred in around 70 films over the course of 10 years, before suspending his film activities and devoting himself to his university studies. He made his return to the big screen in 1977 with The Soldier and the Girls. The movie A Fine, Windy Day (1980) marked a turning point in his acting career, earning him the Young Talent Award at the Daejong Film Awards that same year.
With movie posters for neighbors in the cinema, South Korea launches the Busan festival
He had a string of successes with films that have become iconic, such as North Korean Partisan in South Korea (1990). In the 2000s, Ahn Sung-ki won the Best Supporting Actor award for the first time in his career with Musa, the desert princess (2001). The movie Silmido (2003) by Kang Woo-seok, for its part, exceeded 10 million admissions, a first in the history of Korean cinema. During the 2010s and 2020s, Ahn Sung-ki gradually reduced his activities and his last film was Noryang (2023).
Strong supporter of the Korean film industry
Ahn Sung-ki was a member of the National Academy of Arts (NAA). He was also distinguished by his commitment to the film industry, notably as president of the Korean Film Actors Association (KFAA) and head of the emergency commission for the defense of the broadcast quota for Korean films.
His funeral will take place in Seoul on January 9, before burial in a cemetery in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province.