Will Yun Lee
William Yun Lee | |
|---|---|
.jpg?lang=en) Lee in 2013 | |
| Born | Lee Sang-Wook (이상욱) March 22, 1971 Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Spouse |
Jennifer Birmingham (m. 2010) |
| Children | 1 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | I Sang-uk |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ri Sang'uk |
William Yun Lee (born March 22, 1971) is a Korean-American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama Witchblade and Jae Kim in the sci-fi series Bionic Woman. He has also appeared in the films Die Another Day (2002), Elektra (2005) and The Wolverine (2013). He had a recurring role as Sang Min in Hawaii Five-0, plays the original body of series protagonist Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon, plays Marvelous Man in the Guardians of Justice (2022) and voiced Wei Shen in the game Sleeping Dogs (2012). As of 2019[update], he is appearing on the ABC medical drama The Good Doctor playing Dr. Alex Park.
Early life
Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia to Korean parents. His parents are mother Jung Ja Lee and father Soo Woong Lee, a Taekwondo grandmaster. [1] He first began training at just three years old and spent a portion of his youth teaching at Lee's Tae Kwon Do training facility, his family's business in Napa, California.
Lee spent his youth moving across the United States and has attended 23 schools.[2]
Lee attended UC Berkeley with a full athletic scholarship to study political science and ethnic studies.[3]
Career
Lee had supporting roles in high-profile films such as Die Another Day, Torque, The King of Fighters and Elektra. He has also acted on FX Network's mini-series Thief and ABC Family's TV movie Mini-series Fallen. He recently guest starred in Hawaii Five-0 as recurring character "Sang Min", and in True Blood as "Mr. Gus". He also played Kenuichio Harada in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013).[4] In 2018, Lee appeared in several episodes of the Netflix science-fiction series Altered Carbon as the original body of protagonist Takeshi Kovacs (otherwise predominantly played by Joel Kinnaman in season one and Anthony Mackie in season two).[5]
Lee provides the voice of the main protagonist in Square Enix's Hong Kong open-world crime game Sleeping Dogs as undercover cop Wei Shen.
In 2002, he was named by People as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People", which quickly led to high-profile roles. In November 2007, he was again recognized by People, this time as one of the members of their list of the 15 "Sexiest Men Alive".[6]
Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood. He was featured in the music video of Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" as well as Ice Cube's "Roll Call".
Personal life
In October 2010, Lee married actress Jennifer Birmingham in Shreveport, Louisiana.[7] Their son, Cash, was born in June 2013.[8] Cash was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease, a rare blood disorder, at the age of three.[2]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Gung Fu: The New Dragon | Danny | |
| What's Cooking? | Jimmy Nguyen | ||
| 2002 | Die Another Day | Colonel Tan-Sun Moon | |
| 2002 | Four Reasons | Buddha | Direct-to-video |
| 2002 | Face | Daniel Chang | |
| 2004 | Torque | Val | |
| 2005 | Elektra | Kirigi | |
| 2005 | The Seed | Ken Marcado | Short film |
| 2007 | Hers | Lucas | |
| 2008 | 6th and Santa Fe | Short film | |
| 2010 | The King of Fighters | Iori Yagami | |
| 2011 | Where the Road Meets the Sun | Takashi | |
| Setup | Joey | ||
| Five Star Day | Samuel Kim | ||
| Oka! | Yi | ||
| 2012 | Total Recall | Marek | |
| Red Dawn | Captain Cho | ||
| 2013 | Superman: Unbound | Parasoldier Leader (voice) | Direct-to-video |
| Make Your Move 3D | Kaz | ||
| Lost for Words | Stanford | ||
| The Wolverine | Kenuichio Harada | ||
| Four Assassins | Marcus | ||
| 2015 | Spy | Timothy Cress | |
| Power/Rangers | General Klank | Short film | |
| San Andreas | Dr. Kim Park | ||
| 2016 | Restored Me | Trevor Kang | |
| She Has a Name | Akkarat | ||
| 2017 | Unspoken: Diary of an Assassin | ||
| 2018 | Bangkok Love Story | ||
| Canal Street | Officer Hank Chu | ||
| Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets | |||
| Rampage | Agent Park | ||
| 2019 | Rogue Warfare | Daniel | |
| 2021 | Wish Dragon | Mr. Wong (Father) (Voice) |
Television
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Nash Bridges | Quick | Episode: "Gun Play" |
| 1998 | Profiler | Andrew Young | Episode: "Ties That Bind" |
| Brimstone | Roger | Episode: "Poem" | |
| 1999 | V.I.P. | Bobby Wu | Episode: "Mao Better Blues" |
| The Disciples | Yoyo Lee | Television film | |
| 2000 | Witchblade | Danny Woo | Television film |
| 2001 | The Agency | Sam | Episode: "The Year of Living Dangerously" |
| 2001–2002 | Witchblade | Detective Danny Woo | 23 episodes |
| 2002 | Face | Daniel | |
| 2003–2004 | 10-8: Officers on Duty | Detective Danny Chang | 2 episodes |
| 2004 | Threat Matrix | Danny Roh | Episode: "PPX" |
| Law & Order | Hiroji Yoshida | Episode: "Gaijin" | |
| 2006 | Thief | Vincent Chan | Miniseries |
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Dennis Kim | Episode: "Time of Your Death" | |
| Tsunami: The Aftermath | Chai | Miniseries | |
| 2007 | Hustle | Shiro | Episode: "Conning the Artists" |
| Fallen | Mazarin | 4 episodes | |
| Bionic Woman | Jae Kim | 7 episodes | |
| 2008 | Finnegan | Taki | Television film |
| 2010 | Boston's Finest | Eddie Lao | Television film |
| 2010–2017 | Hawaii Five-0 | Sang Min | 11 episodes |
| 2014 | The Novice | The Big Bang | Television film |
| True Blood | Mr. Gus | 5 episodes | |
| Intelligence | Jin Cong | 2 episodes | |
| 2015 | Strike Back: Legacy | Kwon | 5 episodes |
| Dr. Ken | Kevin O'Connell | Episode: "Kevin O'Connell" | |
| The Player | Liu Zeng | Episode: "House Rules" | |
| Warrior | Susano | ||
| 2016–2018 | Falling Water[9] | Taka | Main role |
| 2018–2020 | Altered Carbon | Original Takeshi Kovacs | Recurring role (Seasons 1–2); 12 episodes |
| 2018–present | The Good Doctor | Dr. Alex Park | Recurring (season 1) Main (season 2–present) |
| 2021–2022 | Blade Runner: Black Lotus[10] | Joseph | Main role; voice |
| 2022 | The Guardians of Justice | Marvelous Man | Main Role |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Saints Row: The Third | Pedestrians | |
| 2012 | The Amazing Spider-Man | Additional Voices | |
| Infex | IngenBio Guard | ||
| Sleeping Dogs | Wei Shen | ||
| 2013 | Saints Row IV | The Voices of Virtual Steelport | |
| 2015 | Mortal Kombat X | Kung Lao | [11][12] |
| 2020 | Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Masato Arakawa | [13] |
References
- ^ Cha, John (March 28, 2014). "March Issue: Something Worth Fighting For". KoreAm. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ^ a b "'The Good Doctor' Actor Will Yun Lee Sets The Caregiving Standard". Character Media. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ^ Turner, Miki (November 25, 2000). "What's Cooking For Will Yun Lee?". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Eisenberg, Eric (July 9, 2012). "The Wolverine Adds Will Yun Lee as Silver Samurai". CinemaBlend. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
- ^ Wigler, Josh (March 2, 2018). "'Altered Carbon' Star Will Yun Lee: "The Conversation is Changing"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- ^ "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
- ^ Wihlborg, Ulrica (October 31, 2010). "Nick Lachey Is Real-Life Wedding Singer". People. Archived from the original on November 1, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- ^ Leon, Anya (June 6, 2013). "Will Yun and Jennifer Birmingham Lee Welcome Son Cash". Reporting by Julie Jordan. People. Archived from the original on June 11, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ^ Warren, Andrew. "A Tennessee tale: Dolly Parton's most famous story is coming to the screen". TV Media.
- ^ Mateo, Alex (July 7, 2021). "Blade Runner: Black Lotus Anime Reveals English/Japanese Casts". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
- ^ Brian Chard [@bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "Huge thanks to the stellar MKX voice actors: Troy @TroyBakerVA (Shinnok/EBlack/Fujin), Ronald M. Banks (Quan Chi); Ashly Burch (Cassie)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
- ^ Brian Chard [@bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "...Nathan Hosner (Narrator); Kelly Hu (D'Vorah/Sindel/Frost); Phil LaMarr (Kotal Kahn); Will Yun Lee (Kung Lao); Patrick Seitz (Scorpion)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
- ^ Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Sega. Scene: Ending credits, 0:14.
External links
- Will Yun Lee on Twitter
- Will Yun Lee at IMDb
- Eichberger, Gaby; Schmidt, Christine (September 2011). "Interview with Will Yun Lee". mycoven.com
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1971 births
- American male actors of Korean descent
- Male actors from Virginia
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male video game actors
- American male voice actors
- American male taekwondo practitioners
- Living people
- People from Arlington County, Virginia
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors