LEE Soon-jae is one of the most well-known veteran actors in Korea, with a career spanning more than six decades. Born in 1934 in a region that is now part of North Korea, LEE moved to Seoul with his family before the Liberation and the resulting Division of the peninsula. Back in high school, he was already playing in plays he produced with his friends. In 1956, while he was studying philosophy at the prestigious Seoul National University, he rebuilt the playgroup of the sch...
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LEE Soon-jae is one of the most well-known veteran actors in Korea, with a career spanning more than six decades. Born in 1934 in a region that is now part of North Korea, LEE moved to Seoul with his family before the Liberation and the resulting Division of the peninsula. Back in high school, he was already playing in plays he produced with his friends. In 1956, while he was studying philosophy at the prestigious Seoul National University, he rebuilt the playgroup of the school along with other comrades and later joined the company Theatre Libre with which he performed a production of O’NEILL’s <Beyond the Horizon>, becoming overnight one of the earliest stars of Korean Student Theater. He could be seen on television as early as 1957, on DBC, the first TV channel in Korea. After graduation, he met likeminded stage actors with whom he founded in 1960 the first “donginje” (a form of amateur theatre society), named Experimental Theater. In January 1962, LEE starred in what is arguably the first Korean drama series ever made, <I Want to be Human>. Based on an anticommunist play by YOO Chi-jin, it was produced to mark the official launch of public TV channel KBS (LEE would later reprise his role in the 1969 film adaptation helmed by YU Hyun-mok). While remaining mostly active on stage throughout the rest of the 1960s, LEE was becoming an increasing presence on television and eventually got his first film role in 1966 in KIM Kee-duk’s <I Will Be a King for the Day>. That same year, he won his first award, the Baeksang Arts Award for Best Stage Actor. From then on and until well into the 1980s, he was a much sought-after movie actor (24 film credits in 1969!) who worked with some of the most celebrated Korean directors of the time, such as KIM Soo-yong and CHOE In-hyeon. In 1977, he won his first accolade as a film actor, the Baeksang Award for Best Actor, for his performance in <Concentration Of Attention> (1976). Since the 1990s, LEE has focused his career on the small screen and even ventured into politics as he was elected member of the National Assembly in 1992. The family sitcom <High Kick!> (2006-2007) brought him to the attention of younger audience owing to his comedic performance as a strict and very demanding grandfather. He made his comeback to the big screen in 2005’s <My Girl and I>. In 2011, he starred in the elderly romance <Late Blossom> (2010), a surprise hit that challenged the belief in Korea that movies must target a young audience to be successful. In 2013, LEE joined the cast of the travel reality show <Grandpas Over Flowers> which sent him and three other veteran actors to a backpack trip across Europe. The program was a cultural phenomenon, spawning several spin-offs and inspiring many similar concepts. In 2018, the Korean President bestowed LEE the Silver Crown (2nd Class) of the Order of Cultural Merit for all his career.
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