Song Kang-ho
Song Kang-ho (born January 17, 1967) is a South Korean actor. Song made his film debut in "The Day a Pig Fell into the Well" (1996), and came to national prominence with a series of critically acclaimed performances, including "No. 3" (1997), "Joint Security Area" (2000), "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" (2002), "Memories of Murder" (2003), "The Host" (2006), and "A Taxi Driver" (2017). Song rose to international prominence for his performances in "Snowpiercer" (2013) and "Parasite" (2019), the latter of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best  Picture. In 2020, "The New York Times" ranked him #6 on its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century. He has been named Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year four times (2013, 2017, 2019 and 2020). Early life. Song Kang-ho was born in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. He had wanted to be an actor since eighth grade. Career. Early career. Song joined Kee Kuk-seo's theatre company, which emphasized instinctive acting and improvisation. He made his stage premiere in 1991 in a play called "A Little Monk" and spent the next  decade as a stage actor. Although he was regularly approached to act in films, he always turned down the opportunity until taking a role as an extra in Hong Sang-soo's 1996 film "The Day a Pig Fell into the Well" at age 30. The following year, after portraying one of the homeless in Jang Sun-woo's documentary-style "Bad Movie", he gained cult notoriety for his performance in Song Neung-han's "No. 3" as a gangster training a group of young recruits, winning his first acting award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Following this, Song  was cast in several supporting roles before his high-profile appearance as Han Suk-kyu's secret agent partner in Kang Je-gyu's blockbuster thriller "Shiri". In early 2000, Song's popularity increased with his first leading role in the box office smash "The Foul King", for which he did most of his own stunts. It was his award-winning 2000 performance in "Joint Security Area" as a North Korean sergeant that established him as one of South Korea's leading actors. Song also starred in Park Chan-wook's acclaimed followup, "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", which centers on  a father's pursuit of his daughter's kidnappers. In 2002, Song starred in another major production by Myung Films, "YMCA Baseball Team", about Korea's first baseball team which formed in the early 20th century. Prominence. In 2003, he played a leading role as an incompetent rural detective in another critically acclaimed hit, "Memories of Murder", from young director Bong Joon-ho. It was the first of several critically acclaimed movies they would make together, with commentators describing Bong's relationship with Song as a "great actor-director collaboration". In 2004, Song starred in "The President's Barber" by  debut director Im Chan-sang, which imagines the life of South Korean president Park Chung-hee's personal barber. The following year he also took the lead in "Antarctic Journal", a big-budget project by debut director Yim Pil-sung about an expedition in Antarctica that performed weakly at the box office. In 2006, Song was thrust back in the spotlight, however, with a leading role in Bong Joon-ho's record-breaking creature movie "The Host". The film helped to broaden international awareness of Song's talent, and in March 2007 he was named Best Actor at the  inaugural Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. More high-profile projects followed: "The Show Must Go On" about an aging gangster, Lee Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine", Kim Jee-woon's western set in Manchuria "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", Park Chan-wook's vampire film "Thirst" in which he notably appeared full frontally nude, the North–South spy thriller "Secret Reunion", the gangster love story "Hindsight", the suspense film "Howling", the English-language dystopian blockbuster "Snowpiercer", the period drama "The Face Reader", and "The Attorney" which was inspired by Roh Moo-hyun's early days as a human  rights lawyer. Song has continued to star in a number of critically acclaimed films, including "The Throne", a period film that presents a new spin on the relationship between King Yeongjo and Prince Sado; period action film "The Age of Shadows", and "A Taxi Driver", a film that depicts the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement. More recently, he had a starring role in the critically acclaimed film "Parasite", also directed by his frequent collaborator Bong Joon-ho, which became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or, as well as the first to be nominated for and win the  Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2021, he was selected as one of the nine judges in the competition section of the 74th Cannes Film Festival to be held from July 6 to July 17. Personal life. Song married Hwang Jang-suk (황장숙) in 1995, with whom he has two children. Their son, Song Jun-pyoung, born in 1996, is a former football player for Suwon Samsung Bluewings, despite Song's opposition. Their daughter is named Ju-yeon (주연). Philanthropy. On March 6, 2022, Song donated 100 million won to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association to help the damage  from the massive wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk and spread to Samcheok, Gangwon. Legal troubles. In 2005, Song was found by the police to be drunk driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.095%. His license was suspended for 100 days.