- On December 27, 2023, at 10:30 a.m., Lee was found dead at the age of 48 inside his car at a park in central Seoul. Police responded to the scene after receiving a 112 report In the passenger seat was a charcoal briquette, commonly used in suicides in South Korea.
- In October 2023, it was revealed that Lee was booked for internal investigation over suspected drug use. As a result, he voluntarily dropped out of No Way Out, an upcoming thriller drama serial which just started its production days before the revelation of his alleged drug use.
- Lee Sun-kyun entered the Korea National University of Arts in 1994, and graduated in the first ever class of its School of Drama.
- In 2001, he made his stage acting debut as Brad Majors in the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, and his television debut in the sitcom Lovers.
- Despite his burgeoning fame, Lee turned to low-budget arthouse films to polish his acting caliber. Night and Day, Lost in the Mountains, Oki's Movie, Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Our Sunhi were all directed by Hong Sang-soo, an auteur renowned for his realistic portrayal of ordinary lives.
- He was best known for his roles in the thriller Helpless (2012), romantic comedy All About My Wife (2012), and crime/black comedy A Hard Day (2014).
- On October 24, he was charged on suspicion of using cannabis and psychoactive drugs, according to Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, and was summoned for questioning on October 28.
- The police earlier received a report from his wife that Lee had left home after "writing a memo akin to a suicide note".
- With Pasta, in which he played a brilliant-but-abrasive chef, Lee successfully shook off his "gentle" TV drama image, and the series' popularity made him a bankable romantic leading man.
- On the big screen, he received a Best Actor award from the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for his role in Paju (2009).
- He headlined the film "A Hard Day", which screened at the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and became a critically acclaimed sleeper hit at the box office.
- In 2023, Lee starred alongside Lee Ha-nee (Honey Lee) in Lee Won-suk's comedy Killing Romance. While the film received a tepid reaction upon release, it has since become a cult favorite in Korea, and made its North American debut at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival on July 14, 2023.
- He received several other awards, including a nomination for an International Emmy Award.
- At the time of his death, Lee had been investigated for alleged drug consumption.
- Lee was appointed ambassador for the Health Insurance Review Agency in 2007, and won an award from the Korea Advertisers Association in 2008.
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