SEOUL, South Korea — Ahn Sung-ki, a towering figure in South Korean cinema whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” passed away on Monday. He was 74. The Artist Company, his agency, and the Seoul-based Soonchunhyang University Hospital announced his death, which came after years of battling blood cancer.
“We are deeply saddened by this sudden and tragic news,” the Artist Company said in a statement. “We pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family members.”
Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before leaving the film industry to live an ordinary life.
In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Despite graduating with top honors, he struggled to find employment at major companies due to the perceived irrelevance of his degree after the communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977, believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggles of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise. Ahn won the prestigious Grand Bell Awards for Best New Actor, the Korean equivalent of the Academy Awards.
Over the next few decades, Ahn starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido,” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”
Ahn collected dozens of trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for Best Actor five times — an achievement unmatched by any other South Korean actor.
Ahn was known for his humble, trustworthy, and family-oriented image, avoiding major scandals and maintaining a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”
In recent years, local media has given other stars similar honorable nicknames, but Ahn was apparently the first South Korean actor dubbed as “The Nation’s Actor.” “I felt I should do something that could match that title,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap news agency in 2023. “But I think that has eventually guided me on a good direction.”
In media interviews, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manager for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.
Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said he was too shy to act romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip steamy scenes if they were only meant to add spice to movies. “I don’t do well on acting like looking at someone who I don’t love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically,” Ahn said in an interview with Shindonga magazine in 2007. “Simply, I’m clumsy on that. So I couldn’t star in such movies a lot. But ultimately, that was a right choice for me.”
Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning station at a Seoul hospital will remain open until Friday.
