SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema\u2019s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname \u201cThe Nation\u2019s Actor,\u201d died on Monday. He was 74.<\/p>\n
The death of Ahn, who had been fighting blood cancer for years, was announced by his agency, the Artist Company, and the Seoul-based Soonchunhyang University Hospital. <\/p>\n
Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie \u201cThe Twilight Train\u201d in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life. <\/p>\n
In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul\u2019s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.<\/p>\n
After spending a few years unemployed, 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\u2019s \u201cGood, Windy Days,\u201d a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country\u2019s rapid rise. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n
He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country\u2019s most popular actor in much of the 1980-90s.<\/p>\n
Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981\u2019s \u201cMandara,\u201d a beggar in 1984\u2019s \u201cWhale Hunting,\u201d a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992\u2019s \u201cWhite Badge,\u201d a corrupt police officer in 1993\u2019s \u201cTwo Cops,\u201d a murderer in 1999\u2019s \u201cNo Where To Hide,\u201d a special forces trainer in 2003\u2019s \u201cSilmido\u201d and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006\u2019s \u201cRadio Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsday.com%2Fimage-service%2Fversion%2Fc%3AYTVkMDk1YzAtM2Q0ZS00%3AODc3Mzk1M2MtZDBkZi00%2Fcopy-of-south-korea-obit-ahn-sung-ki.jpeg%3Ff%3DLandscape%2B16%253A9%26w%3D768%26q%3D1&w=1920&q=80\"\/)
<\/p>\n
South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki smiles for a photo on the red carpet at the 56th Daejong Film Awards ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, June 3, 2020. Credit: AP\/Ahn Young-joon<\/p>\n
Ahn had collected more than 20 trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actors have matched yet. <\/p>\n
Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea\u2019s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname \u201cThe Nation\u2019s Actor.\u201d <\/p>\n
In interviews with local media, Ahn couldn\u2019t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newsday.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema\u2019s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname \u201cThe Nation\u2019s Actor,\u201d died on Monday. He was 74. The death of Ahn, who had been fighting blood cancer for years, was announced by his agency, the Artist Company, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2222236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[359676,23383,21751,21741,21912,427946,307696],"class_list":["post-2222235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-cancer","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-top-ap-news","tag-wires-bot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Popular-South-Korean-movie-star-Ahn-Sung-ki-dubbed-The-Nations.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222237,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222235\/revisions\/2222237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2222236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2222235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2222235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}