Actors Park So-dam and Park Hae-mi shared a tearful moment while remembering the late Lee Soon-jae.
On the May 12th episode of KBS2’s ‘Secret of the Celeb Soldier’, Park So-dam and Park Hae-mi appeared as special guests. Both are junior actors who worked with Lee Soon-jae during his lifetime.
Park So-dam, who starred with Lee Soon-jae in the 2020 play ‘Grandfather Henri and I’, couldn’t hide her emotions from the start. She shared, “Even though it’s been a long time, I get a bit choked up when I think of him. My goal was not to cry.”
However, she broke down when Lee Soon-jae’s voice played during the broadcast. With teary eyes, she said, “Hearing his voice makes me feel vulnerable already. I almost wanted to ask for help…”
For Park So-dam, who returned to acting after overcoming papillary thyroid cancer, this broadcast meant more than just a memorial. Recalling her time with Lee Soon-jae, she said, “It made me feel that I should live my life more diligently.”
Park Hae-mi, who worked with him in the legendary sitcom ‘High Kick!’, also showed deep emotion. She stated, “As his eternal daughter-in-law, I will make sure his voice is heard as much as possible.”
Park Hae-mi couldn’t hide her regret that Lee Soon-jae received his first-ever KBS Acting Award only last year for the drama ‘Dog Sound’.
She expressed her frustration, saying, “I was so angry to hear that this was his first Acting Award. No matter how unlucky he was with awards, this is unbelievable.”
The show also looked back at Lee Soon-jae’s long acting career. A 1954 graduate of Seoul National University’s Philosophy department, he entered acting after watching the movie ‘Hamlet’. He later became known as a specialist in villain roles, playing criminals 33 times in the drama ‘Detective Notebook’. It was also revealed that his very first role was a middle school student’s sexual offender.
Life wasn’t always easy. Lee Soon-jae continued acting for nearly 20 years in an environment that was almost unpaid. It was shared that his wife supported the family by running a snack shop.
Despite the hardships, he never gave up acting. He was famous in the industry for his memory, even memorizing the lines of his co-stars. Park Hae-mi recalled that during the play ‘King Lear’, Lee Soon-jae delivered a monologue lasting over two hours without a single NG.
However, the effects of aging were unavoidable. During the filming of the drama ‘Dog Sound’, he experienced vision issues after cataract surgery and relied on hearing aids due to hearing loss. He pushed through filming by memorizing scripts read aloud by his manager.
After finishing his final play, ‘Waiting for Waiting for Godot’, he was hospitalized with pneumonia. Medical staff explained that he was suffering from geriatric syndrome, a combination of sarcopenia, hearing loss, cataracts, and pneumonia.
What touched his juniors the most was a video from his hospital room. Even while experiencing delirium, Lee Soon-jae continued to practice his play lines. Until the very end, he said, “The only thing I want to do is work on projects.”
Park So-dam recalled, “He mentioned that he wanted to die on stage.” She added, “Lee Soon-jae and Shin Goo always told us, ‘The moment I spend a day like this with you and go home is when I am happy.'”
Actor Lee Soon-jae passed away last November, bid farewell by many junior actors.
