Eight years have passed since late actress Choi Eun-hee, who was the mother and a star of Korean cinema, left us.
April 16, 2026, is the eighth anniversary of the death of the late Choi Eun-hee. She passed away on April 16, 2018. She was 92 years old.
She was reported to have battled kidney dialysis and complications for a long time, and her eldest son said, "My mother went to the hospital for kidney dialysis and passed away."
Born in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, in 1926, the late Choi Eun-hee debuted in theater in 1942 in the play 'Youth Theater.' She made her screen debut in 1947 with 'A New Pledge' and rose to stardom through films such as 'Sun of the Night' and 'Hometown of the Heart,' and along with Kim Ji-mi and Um Aeng-ran, she was loved as an original troika of the 1950s and 1960s.
The late Choi Eun-hee was also famous for falling in a love like a movie. She fell in love with director Shin Sang-ok while appearing in the 1953 documentary film 'Korea' and, a year later in 1954, after they married, led the renaissance of Korean cinema.
After winning the best actress award at the first domestic film festival hosted by the Ministry of Education, the predecessor of the Grand Bell Awards, for 'Confession of a Female College Student,' the late Choi Eun-hee cemented her star status by appearing in some 130 films including 'Dream,' 'Hellfire,' 'Chun-hee,' 'Romance Papa,' 'Lady Baek,' 'Seong Chun-hyang,' 'The Guest and the Mother,' and 'Romance Gray.'
After later divorcing director Shin Sang-ok, the late Choi Eun-hee went alone to Hong Kong in January 1978, where she was abducted by North Korean agents, and director Shin Sang-ok was also abducted in July that year; they reunited in North Korea in 1983. The two reportedly served as heads of the Shin Film shooting studio in North Korea and together made 17 films.
In March 1986, while visiting Vienna, Austria, the late Choi Eun-hee entered the U.S. embassy and successfully sought asylum, and she and director Shin Sang-ok returned to Korea in 1999 after more than 10 years of exile. After director Shin Sang-ok predeceased her on April 11, 2006, the late Choi Eun-hee experienced worsening health, including undergoing back surgery; she had been receiving kidney dialysis three times a week but was unable to regain her health and became a star in the sky.
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