‘Parasite’ actor Lee Sun-Kyun found dead in South Korea

South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, who starred in the 2020 Oscar best picture winner ‘Parasite’, has been found dead, according to police.

The actor, 48, is believed to have been found unconscious in a car at a park in central Seoul on Wednesday, reports bbc.com.

According to the agency, it is unclear if Lee took his own life, but police received a report that he had left home after writing a note.

He had been under investigation for alleged drug use since October.

It was reported that he was suspected of taking drugs with an employee at a bar in Seoul. He had said that though he had taken what she had given him he had not known that they were illicit drugs.

The hostess had reportedly told the police that he used drugs at her home multiple times – something he denied. He had earlier requested through his lawyer to take a lie detector test.

His drug tests had returned negative or inconclusive results, the report added.

Police said that they regretted that Lee had died in the midst of investigations, but that the investigation was “conducted with (his) consent”, News1 Korea reported.

Lee’s agency, HODU&U Entertainment, said: “There is no way to contain the sorrow and despair. We respectfully ask that you refrain from spreading false facts based on speculation… so that (Lee’s) final journey will not be unfair.”

There has been extensive interest around the investigation, which caused considerable damage to Lee’s reputation. He was dropped from No Way Out, a mystery TV series that began shooting in October.

The actor, who was married to and had two sons with actress Jeon Hye-jin, had an acting career spanning more than two decades.

He rose to international fame as Park Dong-ik in ‘Parasite’, the father in the wealthy Park family which was later infiltrated by members of a poor family posing as unrelated individuals.