Lee Eun-ju
Lee in 2004
Born	(1980-12-22)December 22, 1980 Gunsan, South Korea
Died	February 22, 2005(2005-02-22) (aged 24) Bundang, Seongnam, South Korea
Cause of death	Suicide by hanging
Resting place	Goyang, South Korea
Other names	Lee Eun-joo
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1997–2005
Agent	Namoo Actors (2005)
Korean name
Hangul	이은주
Revised Romanization	I Eunju
McCune–Reischauer	I Ŭnju

Lee Eun-ju (December 22, 1980 – February 22, 2005) was a South Korean actress. She was the star of hit films includingTaegukgi andThe Scarlet Letter. Shedied by suicide at age 24.^[1]

Born inGunsan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, Lee studied piano for much of her youth, without giving much thought to becoming an actress. She moved toSeoul after graduating high school and was first noticed in the mid-1990s as a model for school uniforms.^[2] After finding work as a model, she began to be offered roles in various TV dramas, includingStart andKAIST. Her film debut came in 1999, when she played the younger sister in Park Chong-wan's award-winning featureRainbow Trout.^[3]

Her first lead role came as the title character inHong Sang-soo'sVirgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000).^[4]

Following this, she teamed with actorLee Byung-hun in the 2001 hit filmBungee Jumping of Their Own, and also scored a hit oppositeCha Tae-hyun in the melodramaLovers' Concerto.^[4]

Lee's later career was marked by several turns in films that failed at the box-office, plus a key role in the record-breakingKorean War filmTaegukgi.^[5] In 2004 she appeared in the very popularKorean drama,Phoenix, and later that year she starred in her last feature,Daniel H. Byun'sThe Scarlet Letter which screened as the Closing Film at the 2004Pusan International Film Festival.^[4][6]

"I'm called a new generation star, but I don't want to be the kind of person who achieves instant fame and then is quickly forgotten. I want to learn step-by-step how to become a good actress, and gradually work my way up. A star achieves brilliance, but is soon forgotten; to become an actress takes more time." [Interview Excerpt: Kino, #60, February 2000]^[4]

On the night of February 22, 2005, only a few days after her graduation fromDankook University, Lee died bysuicide at her apartment inBundang, Seongnam, after slitting her wrists andhanging herself. She was 24 years old. The family blamed the suicide on severe bouts ofdepression andmental illness and said she had been suffering frominsomnia due to thenude scenes she had done inThe Scarlet Letter, but it could also be traced fromBungee Jumping of Their Own, where all her characters since then have died, so she was too invested in her characters.^{[clarification needed]}

She left asuicide note scrawled in blood, in which she wrote, "Mom, I am sorry and I love you." A separate note said, "I wanted to do too much. Even though I live, I'm not really alive. I don't want anyone to be disappointed. It's nice having money... I wanted to make money."^[2][7][8]

The news of her death prompted a massive outpouring of grief from fellow actors and filmmakers and fans. Lee Eun-ju was cremated and enshrined in acrypt atGoyang. Hundreds of her fellow actors and entertainers attended her funeral. VocalistBada sang "You Were Born to be Loved", and friends spoke in her memory.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Her friends and colleagues have held memorials for Lee every year since her death. The 2007 event was marked by a music CD released in her name, featuringremastered versions of hercover performance ofThe Corrs' "Only When I Sleep" fromThe Scarlet Letter, as well as tribute performances by her friends in the entertainment industry.

• Suicide in South Korea

• Lee Eun-ju at theKorean Movie Database
• Lee Eun-ju atIMDb
• Lee Eun-joo atHanCinema

• 1980 births
• People from Gunsan
• Actresses from North Jeolla Province
• Dankook University alumni
• Suicides by hanging in South Korea
• South Korean female models
• South Korean film actresses
• South Korean television actresses
• 2005 suicides
• 2005 deaths
• Best New Actress for Grand Bell Awards winners
• 20th-century South Korean actresses
• 21st-century South Korean actresses

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using death date and age with unknown parameters
• Articles containing Korean-language text
• Articles with hCards
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2022