Parasite Star, 48, Found Dead in Car

South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, who starred in 2019's Oscar-winning Parasite, was found dead in a car in a central Seoul park Wednesday morning. Police had been alerted earlier after Lee, 48, wrote a note that appeared to be a suicide note and then left home, Yonhap News reports. At the time of his death, Lee was under investigation for allegedly using illegal drugs, including pot, at the home of a hostess who works at a high-end bar in Seoul. Lee had claimed he was tricked by the hostess into taking drugs and didn't know what he was taking.

Lee starred as Park Dong-ik, the patriarch of a wealthy family that is infiltrated by members of a poor family, in Parasite, the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the BBC reports. He'd long been well-known in South Korea, where he starred in a number of TV series and films, including the drama series Coffee Prince and the medical drama Behind the White Tower, CBS News reports. He won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Parasite, and last year he was nominated for best actor at the International Emmy Awards for his role in Dr. Brain. (More South Korea stories.)