Actress Lee Eun-joo Commits Suicide

By Lee Yong-sung
Staff Reporter

Popular television and film actress Lee Eun-joo was found dead on Tuesday, apparently having committed suicide. She was 24.

Lee, the star of such hit films as "Taegukgi" (2004) and "The Scarlet Letter" (2004) as well as the recent MBC television drama "Firebird" ("Phoenix", Pulsae), was found by her elder brother in the walk-in closet of her apartment in Pundang, Kyonggi Province, where she is said to have hung herself.

Lee's mother and elder brother were with her until early in the morning, he said, and he returned to the apartment in the afternoon when she failed to answer her phone.

A note written in blood that included the words, "Mother, I'm Sorry, I Love You" was discovered at the scene.

While the police said the death is believed to be suicide, investigations were not formally completed by the time this newspaper went to print.

Born Nov. 16, 1980, Lee lived in Kunsan, North Cholla Province, until graduating from high school and moving to Seoul to study acting at Dankook University. She first appeared on television as a teenager in the 1998 SBS drama "White Night 3.98".

Lee made her film debut in "Rainbow Trout" in 1998. Lee's other films include "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" (2000), "Bungee jumping of their own" (2000) and "Au Revoir, UFO" (2003).

Lee graduated from Dankook University on Friday and was reported to have been in good spirits, according to her professors and school friends.

However, Lee's family said the actress suffered from insomnia after taking on sexually explicit roles in her most recent film "The Scarlet Letter" and agreeing to a semi-nude scene for "Firebird".

Lee portrayed a lounge singer in an unstable relationship with a detective in "The Scarlet Letter", which was the closing film of last year's Pusan International Film Festival.

Lee was scheduled to begin shooting a new film in the spring, and had agreed to star in a new drama after finishing the film, according to Yonhap News Agency.