South Korean actor Song Young-kyu has been found dead in his car, local police have said.
The ‘Extreme Job’ actor was discovered by an acquaintance in a car at a housing complex in Yongin, just south of Seoul, around 8am, police said.
Authorities said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
They also clarified that he did not leave behind a suicide note.
In June, the 55-year-old found himself in controversy when he was embroiled in a drink-driving scandal.
The case, which made national headlines in his home country, had been forwarded to prosecutors and was pending an indictment.
In the fallout of the incident, he was axed from two dramas that are both still in production.
His role in the stage play, Shakespeare in Love, was also terminated.
He leaves behind a wife and two children.
He first appeared on stage in 1994 in the children’s musical Wizard Mureul and established himself as one of South Korea’s most sought-after stars.
Song became a mainstay in movies, television and theatre with roles in productions such as Baseball Girk and Trick.
In 2019, he starred in Extreme Job, which became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time in South Korea.
It catapulted him to superstar status and solidified his place as one of the country’s most bankable stars.
His career spanned over three decades and he starred in over 40 TV dramas throughout the years.
He became known to international audiences after his appearances in Netflix’s Narco-Saints and Big Bet for Disney+, both released in 2022.
His drunk-driving incident put a damper on his career. As well as being axed from productions, his screen time was limited in shows he had already shot.
Not only was the actor dropped from a stage play, he was axed from two high-profile dramas currently in production, The Defects and SBS’s The Winning Try.
The alcohol in his system was enough to get him banned from driving under South Korean laws. Celebrities in the country are often revered and expected to live scandal-free lives.
Police said he drove roughly five kilometres in Yongin with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 per cent, above the legal threshold.
His cause of death has not yet been disclosed.
