Villains Loved by Lead Actors... Veteran Actor Park Dong-ryong Passes Away

Veteran actor Park Dong-ryong, who passionately played the role of henchmen opposing the protagonists in Korean action films from the 1970s to the 1980s, passed away on the 19th. He was 83 years old.

Veteran actor Park Dong-ryong / Photo by Yonhap News

According to the film industry, he passed away at around 4:50 a.m. that day at a nursing hospital in Seoul due to old age.

He was born in 1940 in Yeongdo, Busan. After graduating from high school, he worked on foreign ships traveling between Korea and Japan before moving to Seoul. In 1967, through a friend (Baek Young-min) working at Shin Film, he got the opportunity to appear in films. He debuted in director Pyeon Geo-young’s "The Returned Man from Paldo" (1969), playing a villain trying to steal the lover (Kim Ji-mi) of actor Jang Dong-hwi (1920?2005), who was 20 years his senior. At that time, director Pyeon told him, "You are too young to play a villain opposite Jang Dong-hwi," and suggested he grow a mustache, which became his trademark.

Standing tall at 178 cm with a strong and intense appearance, he appeared in almost every action film in the 1970s and 1980s as a supporting or minor role. He often played villains such as Japanese soldiers, North Korean soldiers, and gangsters. Leading actors of action films at the time, including Choi Moo-ryong (1928?1999), Jang Dong-hwi, and Park No-sik (1930?1995), preferred him for villain roles. Park No-sik especially recalled frequently selecting the tall Park Dong-ryong for such parts.

His leading roles include films such as "Cross Stitch" (1978), "The Man with a Nickname" (1980), "I Will Stand Before You Again" (1981), "Female Blacksmith" (1983), "The Itinerant Performer Who Came Last Year" (1985), "Night Fairy" (1986), and "87 Barefoot Youth" (1986). He appeared in a total of 450 films, with his last role as a bus driver in the 2007 film "Even the Sky Has Sorrow" (directed by Han Myung-gu).

At the 41st Grand Bell Awards in 2004, he received a Special Acting Award for his contributions to the development of Korean cinema. He also served as an executive director of the Korean Film Veterans Association.

He is survived by his daughter Park Soo-yeon and others. The Korean Film Veterans Association will assist with the funeral arrangements.