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Will Yun Lee

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William Yun Lee
Lee in 2013
Born
Lee Sang-Wook (이상욱)

(1971-03-22) March 22, 1971 (age 53)
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Years active1997–present
Spouse
Jennifer Birmingham
​
(m. 2010)​
Children1
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationI Sang-uk
McCune–ReischauerRi 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, 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.

Lee on the cover of KoreAm in 2007

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

  1. ^ Cha, John (March 28, 2014). "March Issue: Something Worth Fighting For". KoreAm. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "'The Good Doctor' Actor Will Yun Lee Sets The Caregiving Standard". Character Media. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  3. ^ Turner, Miki (November 25, 2000). "What's Cooking For Will Yun Lee?". Chicago Tribune.
  4. ^ Eisenberg, Eric (July 9, 2012). "The Wolverine Adds Will Yun Lee as Silver Samurai". CinemaBlend. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  5. ^ Wigler, Josh (March 2, 2018). "'Altered Carbon' Star Will Yun Lee: "The Conversation is Changing"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  6. ^ "Sexiest Man Alive 2007: Will Yun Lee". People. November 14, 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Warren, Andrew. "A Tennessee tale: Dolly Parton's most famous story is coming to the screen". TV Media.
  10. ^ Mateo, Alex (July 7, 2021). "Blade Runner: Black Lotus Anime Reveals English/Japanese Casts". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Sega. Scene: Ending credits, 0:14.
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