Choi Eun-hee
Choi in 1966
Born	(1926-11-20)November 20, 1926 Gwangju,Keiki Province,Korea, Empire of Japan
Died	April 16, 2018(2018-04-16) (aged 91) Gangseo District, Seoul, South Korea
Other names	Theresa Sheen[1]
Citizenship	South Korea United States (from 1989)[1]
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1942–2006
Spouses	Shin Sang-ok ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1976)​ ​ ​ (m. 1983; died 2006)​
Korean name
Hangul	최은희
Hanja	崔銀姬
RR	Choe Eunhui
MR	Ch'oe Ŭnhŭi

Choi Eun-hee (Korean: 최은희; November 20, 1926 – April 16, 2018^[2]) was a South Korean actress. She was one of South Korea's most popular stars of the 1960s and 1970s.^[3] In 1978, Choi and her then ex-husband, movie directorShin Sang-ok, wereabducted to North Korea, where they were forced to make films until they sought asylum at the United States embassy inVienna in 1986.^[4][5] They returned to South Korea in 1999 after spending a decade in the United States.^[6]

Choi was born inGwangju,Gyeonggi Province, in 1926. Her first acting role was in the 1947 filmA New Oath.^[3] She rose to fame the following year after starring in the 1948 filmThe Sun of Night and soon became known as one of the "troika" of Korean film, alongside actressesKim Ji-mee andUm Aing-ran.^[7]

After she married directorShin Sang-ok in 1954, the two founded Shin Film. Choi went on to act in over 130 films and was considered one of the biggest stars ofSouth Korean film in the 1960s and 1970s.^[3][8] She starred in many of Shin's iconic films, including 1958'sA Flower in Hell and 1961'sThe Houseguest and My Mother.^[9]

After she was diagnosed with infertility, they adopted two children together, Jeong-kyun and Myung-kim.

In 1976, Choi divorced Shin after seeing news that he had fathered two children with young actress Oh Su-mi.^[10][11] Choi's career began to suffer after her divorce, and she traveled toHong Kong in 1978 to meet with a person posing as a businessman who offered to set up a new film company with her.^[5] In Hong Kong, Choi was abducted andtaken to North Korea by the order ofKim Jong Il. While searching for Choi after her abduction, Shin was also abducted and taken to North Korea soon after.^[3][12]

In North Korea, Choi and Shin were remarried, at Kim's recommendation.^[6] Kim had them make films together, including 1985'sSalt, for which Choi won best actress at the14th Moscow International Film Festival.^[9] Choi later said that the couple was able to make "films with artistic values, instead of just propaganda films extolling the regime," but that she could not forgive Kim for kidnapping her.^[6] While in North Korea, Choi converted toCatholicism.^[13]

The couple finally staged their escape in 1986 while on a trip toVienna, where they fled to the United States embassy and requestedpolitical asylum.^[5] According to formerCIA agent Michael Lee, Choi and Shin became American citizens in 1989 (three years after their escape) and adopted the names Theresa Sheen and Simon Sheen respectively.^[1] They lived inReston, Virginia, thenBeverly Hills, California, before returning to South Korea in 1999.^[6][14]

On April 16, 2018, Choi died at 91 in a hospital where she was due to undergokidney dialysis in the afternoon.^[3] Her death resulted in widespread mourning across South Korea.^[5]

In 2015, film producer and writer Paul Fischer released an English-language biography of Choi's and Shin's lives titledA Kim Jong Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker.^[15] In January 2016, at the2016 Sundance Film Festival, in theWorld Cinema Documentary Competition, a documentary about the North Korean ordeal, entitledThe Lovers and the Despot, directed by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam, was presented.^[16]

• Choi Eun-hee (2007).Confessions of Choi Eun-hee[최 은희 의 고백: 영화 보다 더 영화 같은 삶] (in Korean). Seoul: Random House Korea.ISBN 9788925513997.
• Choi Eun-hee; Shin Sang-ok; Yi Chang-ho (2009).Walks and Works of Shin Sang-ok: The Mogul of Korean Film - Photos and Words, 1926-2006[영화 감독 신 상옥: 그 의 사진 풍경 그리고 발언 1926-2006] (in Korean). Paju: Youlhwadang Publishers.ISBN 9788930103459.

• Schönherr, Johannes (2012).North Korean Cinema: A History. Jefferson: McFarland.ISBN 978-0-7864-6526-2.

• Breen, Michael (2011).Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader (2nd ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.ISBN 9781118153796.
• Bärtås, Magnus; Ekman, Fredrik (2015).All Monsters Must Die: An Excursion to North Korea. Toronto: House of Anansi.ISBN 978-1-77089-881-3.

• Choi Eun-hee atKorean Movie Database
• Eun-hie Choi atIMDb

• 1926 births
• 2018 deaths
• 20th-century South Korean actresses
• Formerly missing people
• Kidnapped South Korean people
• South Korean Roman Catholics
• North Korean abductions
• Actresses from Gyeonggi Province
• People from Gwangju, Gyeonggi
• Best Actress for Grand Bell Awards winners
• Converts to Roman Catholicism
• American actresses of Korean descent
• Naturalized citizens of the United States
• North Korean film actresses

• CS1 Korean-language sources (ko)
• CS1 uses Korean-language script (ko)
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• Use mdy dates from March 2025
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