Byung-hun Lee Biography

BYUNG-HUN LEE

Date of Birth: July 12, 1970

Byung-hun Lee, who also goes by B.H., was born into a wealthy family in Seoul, Korea and never considered acting as a profession until one of his mother's friends suggested it.

He launched his on-camera career in the early '90s with the short-lived Korean television series Asphalt My Hometown and quickly became popular among female audiences. Since then, his female fanbase has been his most loyal.

Byung-hun's transition from the small screen to the silver screen wasn't smooth, as his early films failed to resonate with mass crowds. But after a few attempts, he finally broke out as a movie star with the 2000 Korean war drama J.S.A. Joint Security Area. His performance solidified him as bona fide blockbuster material in the Asian market, and paved the way to several successful TV and film roles.

The actor first explored North American film with 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which co-starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller and Channing Tatum. He played Storm Shadow, one of the central characters in the action movie.

The actor's star power steadily rose over the years, hitting a fever pitch with the 2012 Korean period piece Masquerade. The film was well received by critics and viewers alike, and became the highest-grossing movie of its kind in Korean history. The success of Masquerade triggered a move to honor Byung-hun with a hand- and footprint ceremony at the TLC Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. He became one of the first Korean actors to receive the honor.

In 2013, he stepped back into the role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Retaliation alongside Dwayne Johnson, and followed that up with RED 2, which was headlined by Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Anthony Hopkins. The action film was a hit in both the U.S. and Korea.

Byung-hun returned to the action genre with 2015's Terminator Genisys, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2016, he acted in his biggest North American project to date, starring as one of the misfit fighters in TIFF 2016's opening night film, The Magnificent Seven. He portrayed Billy Rocks in the film, which is a re-imagining of the Oscar-nominated 1960 Western classic of the same name.

Master, a Korean drama, is Byung-hun's latest film.

In addition to Korean and English, Byung-hun also fluently speaks Mandarin Chinese and French. He has a wife named Min-jung, whom he married in 2013, and the pair have one child together.

He also has a younger sister who was crowned Miss Korea in 1996.

Filmography:

Master (2016)
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Misconduct (2015)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
RED 2 (2013)
G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation (2013)
Masquerade (2012)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
J.S.A. Joint Security (2000)