Actor Lee Pil-mo opened up about a painful family history. But having met his beloved wife and children, Lee Pil-mo is moving forward toward greater happiness.
On the 15th, the Channel A program "Close friends to-cumentary - four-person table" featured Park Kyung-rim and college classmates Lee Jong-hyuk and Kim Min-kyo visiting the home of Lee Pil-mo and Seo Soo-yeon.
Lee Pil-mo, along with Lee Jong-hyuk and Kim Min-kyo, recalled memories from their college days. When asked when they began acting, the three said, "It was almost the same. They said come with passion because you won't make money." Kim Min-kyo said, "So we did it for about three years. We said, 'Instead of staying like this, let's each go out to make a name for ourselves and then reunite,'" explaining the reasons the three who had been together ended up going their separate ways.
While Lee Jong-hyuk was the first to start earning money commercially, Lee Pil-mo had to endure about 10 years of obscurity. Lee Pil-mo said, "I supported myself with part-time jobs. I did advertising part-time jobs; if someone famous was there, I played the role of pestering from behind. I really didn't leave anything undone. There is a famous company that builds musical sets; I joined one place and held a hammer making sets, loaded them onto trucks and did the setup."
Even while appearing in minor roles in the rerun drama "Love and War," Lee Pil-mo did not give up his dream of acting and became known after about 10 years by appearing in "The Prime of Daughters-in-law," "Soryak Pharmacy's Sons" and others. Lee Pil-mo said, "My mother liked it very much. Later she prepared her autograph," and added, "My mother was also good at financial management. We originally had a house in Bangbae-dong, but because my mother was good, she moved it several times beside that place and now those things have done well. Our mother raised the children. She saved and economized. My father had three children and lived his whole life like a gentleman without earning money, living like a bon vivant. In the past, when neighborhood women held savings meetings, they would save a few won there and live for a month. My mother lived her life by saving."
In particular, Lee Pil-mo said, "From the point when I started receiving appearance fees for acting, I kept a few hundred thousand won and gave anything over 1 million won to my mother. I gave like that for about 20 years. I could quietly meet friends and have a bottle of soju. There's no reason to have that much money. But with that my mother did money management she hadn't done in her life. Nobody else was giving income. If I was doing theater, she would call. If she said 'come quickly,' I would go; if she said 'stamp this,' I would stamp it. Then this became a building, and something became of it," he added.
Lee Pil-mo's mother, who not only managed finances but also gave him insight when he faced major life worries, died of a stroke in February 2023. Lee Pil-mo said, "I still have the clothes my mother wore when she last went to the hospital wrapped in a bag," and added, "Four days after my mother was hospitalized, my father was admitted too, so they began battling illness in different places. Three months later my mother passed away and my father was elsewhere, but he actually doesn't hear well. His memory isn't entirely intact either, so while arranging my mother's funeral I worried a lot about how to tell my father. It didn't seem right not to tell him, and it also didn't seem like telling him would be good. I worried a lot."
Lee Pil-mo said he still has not told his father about his mother's death. In response, Lee Jong-hyuk and Kim Min-kyo advised, "When a partner dies it's said to be the most damaging kind of loss. I've seen that happen a lot. When one person dies, the other often follows not long after." Park Kyung-rim said, "It seemed to me that rather than having forgotten, he may dislike the certainty that comes when asked. Because when not asked and not told there remains hope."
Although he has a painful family history related to his parents, Lee Pil-mo married Seo Soo-yeon, whom he met on a dating show, and is raising their children. Lee Pil-mo said, "Before marriage I lived alone in a five-room place. One by one they disappeared and the last remaining one is over there. It's a veranda about the size of one pit," referring to his remaining space. His personal space is smaller than when he lived alone, but he is happier because he has his wife and children.
Meanwhile, Lee Pil-mo married in 2019 and has two sons.
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