Bae Soo-yong
Quick Facts
Biography
Bae Yong-joon (born August 29, 1972) is a South Korean actor and businessman. He starred in numerous television dramas, notably Winter Sonata which became one of the major proponents of the Korean Wave. Bae retired from acting after 2007, but remains active as the chairman of management agency KeyEast.
Early life
Bae Yong-joon was born in Mapo District, Seoul. He entered Sungkyunkwan University in 2000 as a Film Studies major, but later dropped out.
Career
Bae made his acting debut in 1994 in the Korean drama Salut D'Amour (lit. "Love Greeting"). The rookie actor quickly gained popularity, and a year later he won Best New Actor at the 1995 KBS Drama Awards for Our Sunny Days of Youth. Throughout the 1990s, Bae continued playing leading roles on television, in Papa (1996), First Love (1996) which reached a peak viewership rating of 65.8%, The Barefooted Youth (1998), and the Noh Hee-kyung-penned Did We Really Love? (1999). In Hotelier (2001), he played a mergers and acquisitions specialist about to takeover a hotel, but has a change of heart after falling in love with one of its employees (Bae would later reprise his role in a cameo in the 2007 Japanese remake of Hotelier).
But it was Yoon Seok-ho's Winter Sonata in 2002 that would transform Bae's career, and consequently the face of Korean dramas abroad. A melodrama about first love, lost memory and unknown family ties, Winter Sonata became an unprecedented success in Asia and more than 20 countries, particularly in Japan. Bae gained a tremendous fan base among Japanese middle-aged women, who dubbed him with the honorific nickname Yon-sama (ヨン様; cf. "Emperor Yon") and brought in US$2.3 billion in tourism and Winter Sonata merchandise sales.
In 2003, Bae was cast in his first major big-screen role in Untold Scandal (he had previously appeared in bit parts in two films in the 1990s). In contrast to his gentle, intellectual image, Bae played a conniving, sexually predatory nobleman in E J-yong's adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses set in 18th century Joseon. His performance received Best New Actor accolades from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards. He next published a photo book The Image: Volume 1 in 2004, which sold 100,00 copies.
Afterwards he worked with director Hur Jin-ho in April Snow (2005), about a stage lighting director who discovers his wife's infidelity when she becomes comatose after a near-fatal car accident with her lover. The film had a weak domestic run but due to Bae's star power, it set a new box office record for a Korean film in Japan with ¥2.72 billion.
Bae then entered the restaurant business, by establishing restaurants and cafes that capitalize on the well-being trend. He owns health food restaurant Gorilla in the Kitchen and high-end traditional Korean restaurant Gosire. As the most famous Korean actor in Japan, he became a proponent for Korean cuisine, and his Gosire lunchboxes (or bento) are sold in Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets. In 2006, Bae became one of Korea's wealthiest celebrities as the majority shareholder (34.6%) of management agency KeyEast (his stocks are valued at US$128 million as of May 2015). Most of the KeyEast executives, including president Bae Sung-woong, are Bae's former managers and have worked with him for more than ten years.
Bae made his much-anticipated return to television in 2007 in The Legend (also known as Taewangsasingi, lit. "The Four Guardian Gods of the King"). The big-budget period-fantasy epic was written by Song Ji-na and directed by Kim Jong-hak, and Bae played dual roles: Gwanggaeto, 19th ruler of the Goguryeo kingdom; and Hwanung, believed to be the son of God and founder of Gojoseon. He was paid ₩250 million (US$217,000) per episode, making him the highest paid Korean television actor of all time.
In 2009, Bae and Winter Sonata co-star Choi Ji-woo reunited as voice actors for the animated series Winter Sonata Anime, which aired in Japan. He also wrote a book of photo-essays A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty, which promoted Korean traditional culture such as ceramics, liquor, hanbok, pansori, hanok, Hangul, kimchi-making, temple stays, museums and historical sites. It became a bestseller, and has been translated to Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese and English. A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty was later turned into an eight-episode TV documentary that aired on MBC Life in 2011.
Bae and KeyEast entered into a joint partnership with Park Jin-young and JYP Entertainment in 2009, which eventually produced Dream High (2011), a teen musical series that revolved around the lives of students attending a high school for the performing arts. As creative producer, Bae supervised the screenplay and production; he also appeared in a four-episode guest arc. The collaboration between KeyEast and JYPE, named Holyim, lasted until 2013.
Personal life
Bae previously dated commercial/music video director Lee Sa-kang in 2004, and chaebol heiress Koo So-hee from September 2013 to February 2015 (Koo is the daughter of LS Industrial Systems vice chairman Koo Ja-kyun).
He and actress Park Soo-jin announced their engagement in May 2015 and married on July 27, 2015 at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel. The couple only invited friends and relatives to the wedding and forbade attendance of the press media.
The couple welcomed their first child, a boy, on 23 October 2016.
Filmography
Television series
Year | Title | Role | Network |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | Salut D'Amour | Kim Young-min | KBS2 |
1995 | Our Sunny Days of Youth | Ha Seok-joo | KBS2 |
Drama Game "Six Steps to Separation" | Kyung-min | KBS2 | |
Sea Breeze | Jang Moon-young | PSB | |
1996 | Papa | Choi Hyun-joon | KBS2 |
Colors "Blue" | KBS2 | ||
First Love | Sung Chan-woo | KBS2 | |
1997 | The Angel Within | Man in cafe (cameo) | KBS2 |
1998 | The Barefooted Youth | Han Yo-seok/Jang Yo-seok | KBS2 |
1999 | Did We Really Love? | Kang Jae-ho | MBC |
2001 | Hotelier | Shin Dong-hyuk/Frank Shin | MBC |
2002 | Winter Sonata | Kang Joon-sang/Lee Min-hyeong | KBS2 |
2007 | Hotelier | Shin Dong-hyuk (cameo, episode 1) | TV Asahi |
The Legend | Damdeok/Hwan-woong | MBC | |
2009 | Winter Sonata Anime | Kang Joon-sang/Lee Min-hyeong (voice) | SKY PerfecTV! |
2011 | Dream High | Jung Ha-myung (guest, episodes 1-4) | KBS2 |
Films
Year | Title | Role | Director |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | The Young Man | (bit part) | Bae Chang-ho |
1997 | PpilKu | Shock member (bit part) | You Jin-sun |
2003 | Untold Scandal | Jo-won | E J-yong |
2005 | April Snow | In-su | Hur Jin-ho |
Music videos
Year | Song Title | Artist |
---|---|---|
2001 | "Goodbye, My Love" | Jo Sung-mo |
2002 | "Ditto and Sympathy 2" |
Books
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2004 | The Image: Volume 1 | |
2005 | 100 Days of Bae Yong-joon | |
2007 | BYJ Family Book | |
2009 | Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty | |
2012 | Visit to Kyoto |
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | KBS Drama Awards | Best New Actor | Our Sunny Days of Youth | Won |
Photogenic Award | Won | |||
1996 | KBS Drama Awards | Excellence Award, Actor | First Love | Won |
Popularity Award | Won | |||
Photogenic Award | Won | |||
Korean Model Center Best Dressed Awards | Recipient | N/A | Won | |
1997 | 33rd Baeksang Arts Awards | Most Popular Actor (TV) | First Love | Won |
Kyunghyang Shinmun Readers' Choice Special Advertisement Awards | Readers' Favorite Advertisement Model | N/A | Won | |
2002 | 38th Baeksang Arts Awards | Most Popular Actor (TV) | Winter Sonata | Won |
10th Korean Most Popular Entertainment Awards | Best Actor (TV) | Won | ||
KBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actor | Won | ||
Popularity Award | Won | |||
2003 | 24th Blue Dragon Film Awards | Best New Actor | Untold Scandal | Won |
Popular Star Award | Won | |||
2004 | 40th Baeksang Arts Awards | Best New Actor (Film) | Won | |
41st Grand Bell Awards | Best New Actor | Nominated | ||
33rd Japan Men's Fashion Association | Best Dressed of the Year, International category | N/A | Won | |
4th Proud Korean Awards (Journalists Federation of Korea) | Recipient, Public Art category | N/A | Won | |
2007 | MBC Drama Awards | Grand Prize (Daesang) | The Legend | Won |
Top Excellence Award, Actor | Nominated | |||
Popularity Award | Won | |||
Best Couple Award with Lee Ji-ah | Won | |||
2008 | 44th Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actor (TV) | Nominated | |
2nd Korea Drama Awards | Hallyu Achievement Award | Won | ||
Order of Cultural Merit (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) | Recipient, Hwagam Medal | N/A | Won | |
2009 | 1st Korea Brand Image Awards | Recipient, Broadcasting category | N/A | Won |
2010 | 1st Stars of Korean Tourism Awards (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) | Achievement Award | N/A | Won |
2013 | 10th Anniversary of Korean Entertainment in Japan Awards | Grand Prize (Daesang) | Winter Sonata | Won |
Best Actor | Won |