Lee Sun kyn, a South Korean actor who starred in the 2020 Oscar best picture winner “Parasite” died Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press and the South Korean news agency Yonhap. He was 48.
He was found dead in a car in a central Seoul park, according to AP. Police had been looking for Lee after his family claimed he wrote a suicide note and left home early on Wednesday.
Lee had recently been under police investigation for alleged illegal drug use. South Korea’s Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency had been investigating Lee and seven other people over alleged drug use; Lee claimed to be the victim of blackmail by another person being investigated and allegedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to extortion. According to Yonhap, police questioned Lee three times, as recently as last Saturday, for his alleged use of marijuana and other drugs at the home of a hostess of a high-end bar in Seoul several times earlier this year. He claimed to have been tricked and didn’t know what he was taking.