"He Always Missed the Stage"... Theater Community Mourns Following Oh Hyun-kyung's Passing

'60 Years on Stage' Veteran Actress Oh Hyun-kyung Passes Away
After Battling Illness Following a Brain Hemorrhage Last August

Veteran actor Oh Hyun-kyung, who had been active in the theater world for over 60 years, has passed away at the age of 88.

On the afternoon of the 1st, a funeral hall for theater actress Oh Hyun-kyung was set up at Seoul Sinchon Severance Hospital. According to the bereaved family, Oh passed away at around 9:11 a.m. that day at a nursing home in Gimpo. She was 88 years old. The funeral will be held on the 5th, and the burial site is Cheonan Park Cemetery. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the bereaved family on the 1st, Oh Hyun-kyung collapsed due to a cerebral hemorrhage in August last year and had been battling illness in a nursing hospital before passing away around 9 a.m. that day.

That afternoon, Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, visited the funeral hall set up at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, to pay his respects and express condolences. At the venue, Minister Yoo met with theater artists and discussed funeral procedures such as the theater community funeral.

Actor Lee Joo-hwa, who co-starred with Oh Hyun-kyung in the KBS2 drama 'TV Sonja Byeongbeop,' expressed condolences through SNS on the same day, saying, "I received training as a KBS 15th public recruitment talent in 1993 and took lessons from Teacher Oh Hyun-kyung," adding, "Despite battling cancer and surviving a traffic accident, she never took a break from acting because she loved the stage so much. Thank you so much for everything."

Theater critic Kim Mi-do posted a review of the play 'Spring Day' in 2009, writing, "Praying for peaceful rest."

She continued, "In the final scene, her concise yet profound delivery of lines expressing longing for her runaway children was truly the highlight of the performance. That one line condensed all her regrets about her children, her disappointments, and her life," paying tribute to the deceased.

Oh Hyun-kyung began her acting career in 1954 as a member of the theater club in her second year at Seoul High School. The following year, 1955, she revealed her talent by winning the Best Male Actor award for her debut work 'Sayuksin' submitted to the National High School Theater Competition.

While studying Korean Literature at Yonsei University, she was an active member of the Yonsei Theater Arts Research Society, participating in 12 plays. After graduation, she became a founding member of the Experimental Theater Troupe and appeared in numerous plays such as 'The Marriage of Figaro,' 'The Wedding at Maengjin's House,' 'Dongcheonhong,' and 'Heosaengjeon,' establishing her name as an actress.

Actor Oh Hyun-kyung, who was known to the public as Lee Jang-soo, the perennial manager in the KBS2 drama 'TV Sonja Byeongbeop,' has passed away at the age of 88.
[Photo by KBS]

Selected as a KBS first public recruitment talent in 1961, she left representative works through television activities such as 'The Daughter-in-Law with Blue Eyes' and 'Blue Sky Tomorrow.' Among them, she was best known to the public for her role as Lee Jang-soo in 'TV Sonja Byeongbeop,' which aired from 1987 to 1993.

Later, she temporarily halted her acting career due to esophageal and stomach cancer but returned to the theater stage in 2008, experiencing a "second heyday."

She won the Best Actor award at the Seoul Theater Festival in 2008 for her leading role as Choi Pal-young in 'The Protagonist,' which participated in the Seoul Theater Festival, and in 2009, she received the Best Actor award at the Korea Theater Awards for her role as the father in 'Spring Day.'

Despite being over 80 years old, she remained active, appearing in the 2020 play 'Les Mis?rables,' but was unable to return to the stage after collapsing from a cerebral hemorrhage in August last year.

She left behind numerous awards, including the Dong-A Theater Award for Best Supporting Actor (1966), Baeksang Arts Awards for Theater Acting (1985), and KBS Drama Awards (1992). In 2013, she was inducted as a member of the National Academy of Arts of Korea.

She had two children, daughter Oh Ji-hye and son Oh Se-ho, with actor Yoon So-jung, who passed away in 2017.

Oh Ji-hye, who followed in her father's footsteps as an actress, told Yonhap News, "Even five days before my father collapsed, he went to see a performance by Teacher Son Sook," recalling, "He was someone who always longed for the theater stage."

She also reflected, "Even though he was about to turn ninety the day after tomorrow, he wanted to work on a new production. No one could stop his passion for theater."

The funeral hall is Room 12 at Severance Hospital Funeral Hall in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The funeral procession will be held on the 5th, and the burial site is Cheonan Park Cemetery.