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| the late Lee Sang-bo / Photo = YouTube channel ‘Yeonye Dwitongryeong Lee Jin-ho’ |
[Sports Today reporter Kim Tae-hyung] Actor Lee Sang-bo has been laid to rest. His death has drawn sorrow and renewed attention to the wrongful accusation he endured while alive.
On the morning of the 29th, at around 10:30 a.m., a farewell ceremony for Lee Sang-bo was held at Pyeongtaek Central Funeral Hall. He will be interred at Cheonan Memorial Park and the Pyeongtaek City Memorial Hall.
Lee was found dead at his home on the 26th. He was 45. Family members discovered his body and reported the death to police. At the family’s request, authorities have not released the cause of death.
In 2022, Lee was briefly detained and questioned on suspicion of drug use, but prosecutors ultimately did not indict him. The incident began with a misunderstanding: medication he had been prescribed for depression was mistaken for illegal narcotics.
On the 28th, the YouTube channel ‘Yeonye Dwitongryeong Lee Jin-ho’ published a 2022 conversation with Lee. In the video, Lee acknowledged that if investigators had treated the case as a major drug offense, he could understand their actions, saying, “I get angry, but I can see why they did it.” He went on to describe the ordeal: he was suddenly arrested, transferred to Hanyang University Hospital and subjected to continuous testing for four to six hours, repeatedly undergoing the same tests.
He recalled being released around midnight and said he had been taken into custody without warning and had no idea he would be taken to Hanyang University Hospital for tests. He added that, incredulously, he was asked to make a payment during the final administrative process.
Lee said he expected an official agency or government office to step in after payment was made. “I was only able to get out after I signed a paper promising to pay the remaining balance by Sept. 30, like a loan agreement,” he said.
He also said the story circulated almost immediately after he arrived at the detention center. “At first the reports said, ‘A man in his 40s, Actor A, used drugs in Gangnam.’ Then it changed to, ‘Actor Lee Sang-bo used drugs near his Gangnam home,’” he recalled. “It spread quickly, so I submitted everything I could to limit the damage.”
Lee had been undergoing treatment for depression after the successive deaths of his sister, father and mother. “My sister, my father and my mother each passed in different ways—an accident, a sudden death, and an illness. Those losses kept happening for about a decade and left me in a very difficult emotional state. I needed formal treatment to get by,” he said.
Lee made his acting debut in 2006 in the drama Invisible Man Choi Jang-soo. His credits include TV series such as Daughter-in-Law’s Heyday, Evil Love, Rugal, Miss Montecristo and Elegant Empire, and films such as Secretly, Greatly and Mephisto.
※ If you are experiencing depression or other difficult thoughts, or if someone close to you is struggling, 24-hour professional counseling is available via the suicide prevention hotline ☎109 or through social media counseling Madlan (www.129.go.kr/etc/madlan).
[Sports Today reporter Kim Tae-hyung ent@stoo.com]
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