SEOUL, South Korea — Ahn Song-ki, one of South Korean cinema's biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “National Actor”, died on Monday. He was 74.
The death of Ahn, who suffered from blood cancer for many years, was announced by his agency, Artist Company, and Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul.
“We are deeply saddened by the sudden sad news, pray for the deceased’s eternal peace and extend our sincere condolences to his grieving family,” the Artist Company said in a statement.
Ahn was born into the family of a director in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952. He made his debut as a child actor in the film “Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in approximately 70 films as a child actor before leaving the film industry to live a normal life.
In 1970, An entered Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to study Vietnamese. An said he graduated with honors but was unable to find work at large companies, which likely found his Vietnamese major to be of little use after the Communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977, believing that he could still succeed in acting. In 1980, he became famous for his starring role in Lee Chang-ho's Good Windy Days, a popular coming-of-age film about the struggles of rural working-class men during the country's rapid rise. Ahn won the Best New Actor award at the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, Korea's version of the Academy Awards.
He later starred in a number of highly successful and critically acclaimed films, winning Best Actor awards and becoming perhaps the country's most popular actor for much of the 1980s and 90s.
Some of his memorable roles include a Buddhist monk in the 1981 film Mandara, a beggar in the 1984 film Whale Hunt, a Vietnam veteran turned writer in the 1992 film White Badge, a corrupt cop in the 1993 film 2 Cops, an assassin in the 1999 film No Place to Hide, and a special forces trainer in the 2003 film year. “Silmido” and dedicated celebrity manager in “Radio Star” 2006.
Ahn has collected dozens of prizes at South Korea's major film awards, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for Best Actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actor has ever achieved.
Ahn has created an image as a modest, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity, avoiding major scandals and maintaining a quiet and stable personal life. Past public polls have chosen Ahn as South Korea's most beloved actor, deserving the nickname “The Nation's Actor”.
Ahn said that he used to feel limited by his “Nation's Actor” tag, but eventually decided that it led him on the right path. Local media have given similar honorific nicknames to other stars in recent years, but Ahn was apparently the first South Korean actor to be dubbed the “Actor of the Nation.”
“I felt like I had to do something that could live up to the title. But I think it ultimately pointed me in the right direction,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in 2023.
In an interview with the media, Ahn couldn't choose which movie was his favorite, but said that his role as the dedicated and hardworking manager of a forgotten rock singer, played by Park Jung-hoon, was most reminiscent of himself in real life.
Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said he was too shy to act in romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip hot scenes if they were only meant to add spice to the films.
“I'm not very good at looking at someone I don't love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically. I feel shy and can't express such emotions well,” Ahn said in an interview with Shindonga magazine in 2007. “I'm just clumsy at it. So I couldn't do a lot of those kinds of films. But ultimately it was the right choice for me.”
An is survived by his wife and two sons. The funeral post at the Seoul hospital was supposed to remain open until Friday.
