Lee Byung-hun

Lee Byung-hun (born July 12, 1970 ) is a South Korean actor.

Lee's career began in 1991 after a KBS talent audition and making his debut in the television drama Asphalt My Hometown.

He has received acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably Joint Security Area (2000); A Bittersweet Life (2005); The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); I Saw the Devil (2010); Masquerade (2012); and the television series Iris (2009) and Mr. Sunshine (2018).

Lee drew attention with the action drama Asphalt Man and romantic film The Harmonium in My Memory, but it was only in 2000 that he made his big breakthrough with Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area.

The film broke the box office record and became the highest grossing Korean film at the time.

Lee's role as a border-guard soldier won him the Best Actor award at the Busan Film Critics Awards.

In 2001, Lee's popularity continued to climb when he starred in melodramas Beautiful Days and Bungee Jumping of Their Own.

In 2003, he received the Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards for his role in the poker drama All In.

Due to his film and television roles, Lee experienced a rise in popularity across Asia, particularly Japan.

From 2005, Lee focused on film, earning critical acclaim for his performance in A Bittersweet Life directed by Kim Jee-woon, which was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lee was nominated for Best Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Grand Bell Awards, and won at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.

Lee reunited with director Kim Jee-woon in the "kimchi western" The Good, the Bad, the Weird, taking on his first villain role.

The film was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lee's eye-catching performance in the film led to increased global recognition for him.

This led to Lee's debut in Hollywood, where he played Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, also starring Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller.

Back in Korea, Lee appeared in I Come with the Rain opposite American actor Josh Hartnett and Japanese actor Takuya Kimura.

In the United States, he is known for portraying Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and its sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), and starring alongside Bruce Willis in Red 2 (2013).

He portrayed T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015), and Billy Rocks in The Magnificent Seven (2016).

Lee was the first South Korean actor to present an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lee and Ahn Sung-ki were the first South Korean actors to imprint their hand and foot prints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Lee returned to television in late 2009 in the espionage action thriller Iris as a secret agent who finds himself at the center of an international conspiracy.

He reportedly received over 100 million won per episode for his role, the third highest in the country's drama history.

Iris was one of the most expensive shows ever produced, and was a smash hit across Asia.

Lee's performance earned him the Grand Prize at the KBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

In 2010, Lee starred in I Saw the Devil with Choi Min-sik, his third collaboration with Kim Jee-woon, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

His portrayal of the intelligence agent won him the Grand Prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Lee received acclaim for his portrayal of dual roles in the lavish period drama Masquerade.

The film was a box office hit, becoming the 7th film in Korean history to surpass 10 million admissions.

Lee won Best Actor at the Grand Bell Awards for his performance.

He then co-starred in the American film RED 2, the sequel to the 2010 action-comedy hit RED, alongside Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich.

Lee was Gallup Korea's Actor of the Year in the Film division in 2012 and in the Television division in 2018.

In 2021, he appeared in a recurring role as the Front Man in the Netflix hit survival series Squid Game.

On June 23, 2012, Lee, along with Ahn Sung-ki, became the first Korean actors to leave their hand and foot prints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

He was recognized as an emerging star in Hollywood for his role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and its sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

In 2013, Lee reprised his role as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

The film was shot in late 2013 and scheduled for release in 2014, but was postponed due to Lee's scandal.

He received praise for his scene-stealing role as a young and ambitious warrior with a lowly status, but the film failed to do well and was criticized for its messy plot.

His critically acclaimed film Inside Men (2015) won him the Best Actor prize at the three most prestigious South Korean award ceremonies: 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards, 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards and 53rd Grand Bell Awards.

Lee has seven films—Joint Security Area, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Masquerade, Inside Men, Master, Ashfall and The Man Standing Next—on the list of the highest-grossing films in South Korea.

Following his sex-chat scandal, Lee returned with the martial arts film Memories of the Sword in 2015.