Yoo Oh-seong

Yu Oh-seong (; born September 11, 1966) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in Beat, Attack the Gas Station (1999), Friend (2001) and Champion (2002).

Career Yu Oh-seong made his stage debut in 1992, and throughout the mid-1990s, he complemented a career in television with minor roles in film. With his success playing a young gangster in the hit movie Beat (1997), Yu's face became familiar to a new generation of moviegoers. The year 1999 was somewhat of a breakthrough for Yu, as he took the lead role in Jang Jin's acclaimed cult comedy, The Spy and also starred in Kim Sang-jin's hugely successful Attack the Gas Station.

His career reached its peak in 2001. Appearing as Jang Dong-gun's co-star in Kwak Kyung-taek's smash hit Friend, which sold an unprecedented 8 million tickets, Yu won effusive critical praise for his hard-edged performance as a ruthless gangster and enjoyed a tremendous degree of exposure.

This fame would carry over somewhat when he took the lead in director Kwak's fourth feature Champion, a 1980s-set biopic of boxer Kim Deuk-gu, who dominated the Korean boxing scene until his death after the World Boxing Association lightweight championship in 1982. However, even though Yu was praised for his body makeover and acting skills, the film failed to deliver on the high expectations that preceded it.

Yu's next two films, the melodrama Star with actress Park Jin-hee and the patriotic/historical drama Thomas An Jung-geun about the titular independence activist, bombed badly at the box office.

For the contemporary drama Invisible Man in 2006, he played a man in his thirties battling early-onset Alzheimer's disease with the support of his loving family (his wife is played by Chae Shi-ra). Yu said his character Choi Jang-soo was closest to his real-life personality. This was followed by a leading role in adultery drama Dear Lover (2007) with Yoon Son-ha, a remake of 1995 Japanese drama Koibito Yo.

In 2009, Yu and Song Seon-mi played a gangster and doctor who fall in love in the stage play Turn Around and Leave, which was previously dramatized onscreen in the 1998 film A Promise and the 2006 TV series Lovers. Later that year, he played a supporting role in Potato Symphony, about a man who moves back to his hometown with his daughter, and faces unresolved conflicts with his old high school friends (the protagonist is played by Jeon Yong-taek, who also wrote, directed and produced the film). Jeon and Yu are close friends in real life, and the film is set in their hometown Yeongwol County. Despite winning the Grand Prix at the 4th Festival Franco-Coréen du Film, Potato Symphony was little seen domestically.

After the underwhelming box office and TV ratings of past projects he'd headlined, Yu stuck to supporting roles. He starred opposite Kim Dong-wook in buddy comedy Happy Killers (2010), in which Kim played a slacker cop assigned to investigate a serial killer case, while Yu played an unemployed man with natural instincts as a detective who gets in the way by trying to catch the killer as well. and the crime drama Don't Cry Mommy (2012).

More recently, he played villains in the 2010 historical drama Kim Su-ro, The Iron King, and the 2012 fantasy Faith in which he played a fictionalized version of Empress Gi's older brother.

In 2013, Yu reprised his most memorable role in the sequel Friend: The Great Legacy, in which he faces the grown-up son of the friend he'd given orders to be killed (Kim Woo-bin), interspersed with scenes of his own father's gangster past in Busan (Joo Jin-mo).

Yu made a return to the sageuk genre with the 2014 drama series Gunman in Joseon, in which he plays the main antagonist. His performance as Choi Won-sin, a villainous and powerful merchant and the archenemy of Lee Joon-gi's character, was widely praised and earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2014 KBS Drama Awards.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role 1991 Love, Love: Han Hee-jak's Love Stories Dal-shik 1993 First Love 1994 I Wish for What Is Forbidden to Me Hwang Nam-gi 1995 Dr. Bong On-dal Terrorist Jeom-pyo Man? Seong Chung-do 1996 Kill the Love Baek Joon 1997 Poison Beat Tae-soo 1998 Saturday, 2:00 pm Dal-soo Spring in My Hometown Sung-min's uncle 1999 The Spy Rhee Cheol-jin Attack the Gas Station Mu Dae-po ("Bulldozer") 2001 Friend Lee Joon-seok 2002 Champion Kim Deuk-gu 2003 Star Yeong-woo 2004 Thomas An Jung-geun An Jung-geun 2006 Lump Sugar Yun-jo 2009 Potato Symphony Jin-han 2010 Happy Killers Kim Young-seok 2011 Champ Trainer Yoon 2012 Don't Cry Mommy Detective 2013 Friend: The Great Legacy Lee Joon-seok 2015 Shoot Me in the Heart Choi Ki-hoon 2018 The Great Battle Yeon Gaesomun 2021 Tomb of the River Gil-seok

Television series Year Title Role Notes 1998 Aim for Tomorrow Kang Dae-ho 2000 Some Like It Hot Kang Man-ho 2004 Jang Gil-san Jang Gil-san 2006 Invisible Man Choi Jang-soo 2007 Dear Lover Go Dong-woo 2009 Swallow the Sun Jackson Lee Invincible Lee Pyung Kang Policeman Cameo 2010 Kim Su-ro, The Iron King Shingwi Ghan / Tae-gang 2012 KBS Drama Special:"Missing Case of NationalAssembly Member Jung Chi-sung" Jung Chi-sung Faith Ki-Chul 2013 KBS Drama Special:"Mother's Island" Lee-Tan KBS Drama Special:"The Devil Rider" Moon-Bok 2014 Gunman in Joseon Choi Won-shin 2015 Spy Hwang Ki-chul The Merchant: Gaekju 2015 Gil So-gae 2016 Uncontrollably Fond Choi Hyeon-joon 2018 Are You Human? Seo Jong-gil 2019 My Country: The New Age Seo Geom Cameo 2021 The Veil Baek Mo-sa 2023 Welcome to Samdal-riJo Sang-tae 2023–2024 Sweet Home Tak In-hwan Season 2–3

Variety show Year TitleNotes 2009 Billion Won Mystery with Yu Oh-seong Host 2021 Law of the Jungle – Pent Island: Island of Desire Cast Member

Music video Year Song title Artist 2011 "Goodbye" Seo Yoon 2013 "Baby I'm Sorry" (2013) MY NAME

Theater Year Title Role 1992 Blood 2005 Story of an Old Thief Tape Vince 2006 Oedipus 2009 Turn Around and Leave Gong Sang-du

Awards and nominations + Year presented, name of the award ceremony, award category, nominated work and the result of the nomination Year Award Category Nominated work Result 1994 32nd Grand Bell Awards Best New Actor I Wish for What Is Forbidden to Me 1997 35th Grand Bell Awards Best Supporting Actor Beat 1998 MBC Drama Awards Best New Actor Aim for Tomorrow 1999 Korean Most Popular Entertainment Awards Most Popular Actor 2001 46th Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Actor Friend 9th Chunsa Film Art Awards Best Actor 38th Grand Bell Awards Best Actor 22nd Blue Dragon Film Awards Best Actor 2002 38th Baeksang Arts Awards Best Actor (Film) Most Popular Actor (Film) 1st Korean Film Awards Best Actor Champion 2003 40th Grand Bell Awards Best Actor 2007 44th Grand Bell Awards Best Supporting Actor Lump Sugar 2009 SBS Drama Awards Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Special Swallow the Sun 2012 SBS Drama Awards Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries Faith KBS Drama Awards Best Actor in a One-act Drama Missing Case of National Assembly Member Jung Chi-sung 2013 KBS Drama Awards Best Actor in a One-act Drama Mother's Island, The Devil Rider 2014 KBS Drama Awards Best Supporting Actor Gunman in Joseon 2015 KBS Drama Awards Excellence Award, Actor in Mid-length Drama The Merchant: Gaekju 2015 2018KBS Drama AwardsBest Supporting ActorAre You Human?