Kim Soo-mi, a veteran female actor who had been active in the South Korean film and TV industries for over 50 years, died on Friday.
Korean media reported that Kim was found unconscious at her home in Seoul and was transported to Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital at 8am Friday, Korean local time. There she was pronounced dead in an emergency room.
The media reports point to cardiac arrest and the Yonhap news agency reports that police are investigating the circumstances.
In May this year, Kim was hospitalized and temporarily halted her acting activities due to fatigue. She had been performing in musical “My Mother” at the time.
Kim, whose name can also be written as Kim Mi-su, was born on Sept. 3, 1951. That would make her 73 years old at the time of her death. Korean society has long operated alternative ways of expressing age and many local media reported her as being 75.
Kim began her acting career at MBC TV in 1971 and played in hundreds of TV shows and feature movies. Among her most prominent was her role as a significantly older woman in the popular Country Diaries” series which ran from 1980-2002. It earned her the Grand Prize at the MBC Drama Awards in 1986.
Her film roles included 2011 comedy-drama “Late Blossom,” which earned her a Blue Dragon award for best supporting actress, 2005 comedy-adventure film “Mapado,” 2006 comedy-drama “Barefoot Kibong,” and as a recurring role in the “Marrying the Mafia” film franchise.
In recent years, Kim appeared in multiple reality-TV shows, including tvN’s cookery series “Mother’s Touch: Korean Side Dishes.”
Other Korean sources report that Kim’s most recent film “Ghost Police,” was still in production at the time of her death. It saw her re-teamed with Shin Hyun-joon, with whom she co-starred in “Barefoot Kibong” and “Marrying the Mafia.”