‘Squid Game’ actress Lee Joo-Sil dies at age 81 after stomach cancer diagnosis

South Korean histrion Lee Joo-Sil, a prima successful the 2nd play of “Squid Game,” has died.

She was 81.

The seasoned histrion collapsed successful cardiac apprehension astatine home successful Uijeongbu, South Korea, connected Sunday, 3 months aft being diagnosed with tummy cancer, The Korea Times reported. She was brought to a infirmary but could not beryllium revived.

Joo-Sil played Park Mal Soon, the doting mother of undercover detective Hwang Jun Ho (Wi Ha Joon) and stepmother of Hwang In Ho (Lee Byung Hun), successful the archetypal 2 episodes of Season 2.

It was the culmination of a six-decade vocation that saw her blossom from signifier histrion to tv and movies.

Born March 8, 1944, Joo-Sil launched her vocation successful 1964 and began appearing onstage successful 1965, rising to prominence successful the theatre country with starring roles successful a slew of acclaimed productions, The Korea Times noted. She besides worked arsenic a dependable actress, according to IMDb.

She yet moved to tv and movies, making her people successful specified films arsenic zombie thriller “Train to Busan” successful 2016 and “The Uncanny Counter” successful 2020, according to People.

This was not Joo-Sil’s archetypal bout with cancer. She had beaten bosom crab 13 years aft a 1993 diagnosis gave her conscionable a twelvemonth to live.

Working passim those wellness struggles, Joo-Sil took her vocation from the theatre to TV and movies, The Korea Times reported, and earned a nationalist wellness doctorate from Wonkwang University.

“Everyone becomes stronger erstwhile faced with a crisis,” she told an interviewer successful 2023. “If you fto everything go, you go helpless. When I was contacted by a movie institution to enactment with them, I said, ‘I’m sick,’ and they said, ‘That’s an illness, and we’re working.’ I was grateful for that benignant of thinking.”

The histrion besides appeared successful 2022’s “It’s Beautiful Now,” the bid “Country Diaries” from 1980 done 2002, and “Beauty and Mr. Romantic,” Deadline noted. She was honored arsenic a Best Supporting Actress successful 2023’s Wildflower Film Festival, which celebrates Korean autarkic and low-budget films.