‘Late Blossom’ actor was 73
Kim Soo-mi, a veteran female actor who spent more than 50 years in the South Korean film and TV industry, died on Friday.
Korean media reported that Kim was found unconscious at her home in Seoul and was taken to Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital at 8 a.m., Korean local time, on Friday. There she was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
Media reports indicate cardiac arrest and Yonhap news agency reports that police are investigating the circumstances.
In May this year, Kim was hospitalized and temporarily stopped her acting activities due to fatigue. At the time she starred in the musical ‘My Mother’.
Kim, whose name can also be written as Kim Mi-su, was born on September 3, 1951. That would make her 73 years old at the time of her death. Korean society has long used alternative ways of expressing age, and many local media reported that she was 75.
Kim started her acting career with MBC TV in 1971 and has appeared in hundreds of TV shows and feature films. One of her most prominent was her role as a significantly older woman in the popular series Country Diaries, which ran from 1980-2002. It won her the top prize at the MBC Drama Awards in 1986.
Her film roles include the 2011 comedy-drama ‘Late Blossom’, which earned her a Blue Dragon Award for Best Supporting Actress, the 2005 comedy-adventure film ‘Mapado’, the 2006 comedy-drama ‘Barefoot Kibong’ and as a recurring role in the ‘Marrying the Mafia’ film franchise.
In recent years, Kim has appeared on several reality TV shows, including tvN’s cooking 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 team up again with Shin Hyun-joon, with whom she co-starred in ‘Barefoot Kibong’ and ‘Marrying the Mafia’.
