| Bae Yong Joon | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 29, 1972 Seoul, South Korea |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1995—present |
| Korean name | ||||||||
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Bae Yong Joon (born August 29 1972 in Seoul, South Korea), is a South Korean actor best known for his roles in numerous television dramas. He is also known as the abbreviated BYJ to many of his fans, or as Yon-sama (ヨン様), with the "sama" being an honorific suffix in Japanese.
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Born in Mapo-gu, Seoul, he was educated in Il-mun Preschool and Myung-il Elementary School. He eventually went to study in PaiChai Middle School and Hanyoung High School. [1]
Bae Yong acknowledged that he had a girlfriend named Lee Sa Gang (aka Sagan Lee, Sagang Lee) , and a photograph of her has since been distributed on the Internet.[2] However, according to a 2005 edition of the I-weekly, a MediaCorp owned magazine in Singapore, Bae has since separated from Lee, citing personal reasons. He has since decided to keep his marital status private.[3] Sources, notably HanCinema, maintain that Bae is still single.[4]
Bae's agency, BOF, reported that Bae's apartment at Samseong-dong, Seoul caught fire on May 7 around 8:00 p.m., due to a short circuit. The house was empty when the fire broke out, thus causing no injuries. However, the fire caused damages costing up to 10 million won.[5]
Bae went onto his film debut in PpilKu in 1994. He later went on to star in dramas like "Salut D'Amour" and "Six Steps to Separation" in late 1994 and 1995 respectively.
He first garnered critical acclaim after appearing in a supporting role on Sunny Place of the Young, where he played the role of the heir to a cosmetics company and best friend of the leading actor, played by Lee Jong Won. Through this role, Bae first gained his now-famous 'regal' image. His next acclaimed role was in First Love, where he played the role of Chan-woo, a smart, young man with checkered past, who drops out of law school to join a gang to seek revenge for his family's misfortunes.
After 1999, Bae decided to step away from acting to focus on his education at Sung Kyun Kwan University, where he majored in film studies.
In 2001, he returned to the small screen, appearing in Hotelier. At this time, Bae decided to let his hair grow long, as evidenced from photographs posted in fan sites.
Bae became world-famous as his next dramatic role, "Winter Sonata," despite the fact that it was a TV drama and not a movie, razed all of Japan with as much as 20% of the country watching it. This popularity gave both Bae and his co-star Choi Ji-woo a chance to shift their main stage from Korea to Japan. Other Korean movies and dramas also became quite popular following the Winter Sonata craze. Bae's role as Kang Jun-sang in Winter Sonata made him the main spotlight of the Korean Wave.
Bae also managed to get a deeper foothold into the Japanese and Southeast Asian market after he starred in the movie Untold Scandal as Jo Won.
According to the May 3, 2005 issue of NEWSWEEK (Asian International Edition), Bae's fan base covers a wide range of Asian female demographics, including middle aged and married women who mob him when he pays a visit to a particular Asian country. Newsweek also notes that "Japanese women are taking up the study of Korean language and history" because of Bae.
In 2004, Bae released a photo book The Image: Volume 1 during a four and 1/2-day tour in Japan to commemorate the tenth year of his acting career. After touring Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Phuket, Bae arrived at Narita Airport nearby Tokyo on November 25, where an estimated 5,000 fans awaited him, with some fans having camped out at the airport terminal awaiting his arrival. 350 police officers and 70 anti-riot agents were also on hand to control the crowd. During his public appearances thousands of fans showed up to greet him, and in some cases mob scenes ensued as they swarmed the car he rode in, which even resulted in one fan suffering an injury which required medical attention from paramedics.
During an August 2005 visit to Taiwan, Bae went to the hospital to see a cancer-stricken fan, who is a mother and who has drawn hundreds of Bae's portraits (China Times (Chinese language), August 20, 2005 and China Post, August 20, 2005).
In 2006, Koh Gyudhae of Hankooki, along with a segment of Bae's fans criticized Wikipedia's article on Bae, citing privacy reasons. Koh went further by voicing his view that "unnecessary" information should be removed. Following the publication of the newspaper, edits included the removal of "incorrect" information.[6] [7]
The hanja in his name are: 裵 (gown); 勇 (brave); 俊 (capable).