Squid Game Actor Lee Joo-Sil Dies at 81 Just 3 Months After Stomach Cancer Diagnosis

Actress Lee Joo-Sil, best known for playing Park Mal Soon in the second season of Netflix’s Squid Game, has died. She was 81.

According to her talent agency, 1230Culture, Lee went into cardiac arrest at her family home on the morning of Feb. 2 and was pronounced dead after being transferred to St. Mary’s Hospital in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, per South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo.

She had been diagnosed with stomach cancer just three months before her death, the Korea Herald reported.

Starring in Squid Game as the mom of undercover detective Hwang Joon-Ho (Wi Ha Joon) and stepmother of Hwang In Ho (Lee Byang Hun) was her last role, according to IMDB.

Lee was previously diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in her fifties and given a one-year life expectancy, according to Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo.

Despite this, in a July 2023 broadcast the actress confirmed that she spent 13 years being treated for the disease and that it had ultimately been successful, per the outlet.

“I found out at the end of stage 3 and it soon became stage 4,” Lee said at the time. “I overcame it well because I have children.”

“Everyone becomes stronger when faced with a crisis,” she continued. “If you let everything go, you become helpless. When I was contacted by a film company to work with them, I said, ‘I’m sick,’ and they said, ‘That’s an illness, and we’re working.’ I was grateful for that kind of thinking.”

Having begun her acting career in 1964, Lee starred in notable stage productions of Death of a Salesman and Macbeth, K-drama The Uncanny Counter, and the 2016 horror movie Train to Busan.

According to JoongAng Ilbo, Lee also obtained a doctorate degree in Public Health at Wonkwang University in 2010.

Her funeral service will be held at Severance Hospital in Sinchon, Seoul, on Feb. 5, per The Korea Times.