Kim Sung-min, South Korean actor, Died at 43

Kim Sung-min was born on February 14, 1973, and died on June 26, 2016.

He was a South Korean actor.

In 1995, he made his acting debut, as a member of the theatre troupe Constellation (Hangul: 성좌).

During 2002, he rose to stardom in the hit television drama Miss Mermaid.

The Miss Mermaid screenwriter Im Sung-han cast Kim again in her next drama, Lotus Flower Fairy (also known as Heaven’s Fate, 2004).

However, when Miss Mermaid was exported to Taiwan and the Philippines, foreign viewers had difficulty pronouncing his given name “Sung-taek,” so to further build his Korean Wave profile, Kim adopted the stage name Kim Sung-min in 2005.

He then went on starring in leading roles in Single Again and Tears of Diamond.

Kim Sung-min was arrested in a drug scandal which also implicated other celebrities, on December 4, 2010.

Reportedly in her police questioning, he admitted to habitually using methamphetamine and marijuana, and smuggling the former substance into Korea.

The Seoul High Court sentenced on January 24, 2011, him to four years in prison; upon Kim’s appeal, the jail term was reduced to 30 months suspended for four years, along with two years of probation, 120 hours of community service, 40 hours of substance abuse education, and a ₩904,500 fine.

Kim was released from a prison in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province on March 25, 2011.

Nonetheless, he was dropped from Qualifications of Men and went on a hiatus.

Following him laying low for two years, Kim made his acting comeback in Can We Get Married? in 2012.

Because of the conservatism of Korean network television, he has so far appeared solely in cable dramas, including Can’t Take It Anymore (2013), and The Three Musketeers (2014) for which he trained in martial arts, horseback riding and the Manchu language for his role as a Qing Dynasty general.

On March 11, 2015, Kim was again arrested for purchasing and ingesting methamphetamine, he claimed that he only used the drug once, and that his relapse had been caused by troubles in his marriage and a slump in his acting career.

He was sentence for illegal drug use and violating his probation, Kim was sentenced to 10 months in prison and a ₩700,000 (US$590) fine.

He was husband to dentist Lee Han-na.

It was reported in June 2016 that his son called the police to report his father was physically abusing his mother.

A little afterwards, she asked the police to check on her husband, and they found him attempting to commit suicide by hanging in the bathroom.

Repots by the police stated Kim Sung Min, who has been in a coma since 24 June, was diagnosed as brain dead at 2AM KST.

Kim Sung-min passed away at 43 yrs od.