Profiles

Jeon Do-yeon (전도연)

There was a whole lot of buzz surrounding this award-winning actress last year.

Thanks to her role in Secret Sunshine, Jeon Do-yeon made heads turn when she bagged the Best Actress trophy at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Apart from that, the 35-year-old actress, who embarked upon a showbiz career back in 1990, was also named one of Variety’s 50 Most Influential Women.

Even Anjali Rao of CNN’s Talk Asia conducted an interview with the star. The program was aired in October 2007.

Jeon started her career by appearing in television dramas. After five years doing TV work, she debuted as a film actor in The Contact, starring opposite Han Seok-gyu. The film was a hit.

The actress then took on different types of roles ranging from a schoolgirl in Harmonium in My Memory to an adulteress in Happy End. Her popularity steadily increased and in late 1999, she won the Best Actress award at Korea’s Chungryong Awards for her role in Harmonium in My Memory.

Jeon also appeared in Untold Scandal, a box-office hit that is based on the famous French novel Dangerous Liaisons.

On the personal front, the actress tied the knot with 44-year-old businessman Kang Shi-kyu in March 2007, after a 4-month whirlwind romance.

Ladies and gentlemen, an actress who’s making Korea proud, Jeon Do-yeon:

Name: Jeon Do-yeon/ Jun Do-yun (전도연)
Date of birth: Feb 11, 1973
Height:
165cm
Blood type: O

Movies:

  • Secret Sunshine (2007)
  • You Are My Sunshine (2005)
  • My Mother, the Mermaid (2004)
  • Untold Scandal (2003)
  • No Blood No Tears (2001)
  • I Wish I had a Wife (2000)
  • Happy End (1999)
  • A Promise (1998)
  • Harmonium in My Memory (1998)
  • The Contact (1997)

TV Dramas:

  • Lovers in Prague (2005)
  • Shoot the Star (2002)
  • Some Things You Can’t Forget (1998)
  • Project (1996)
  • The Star in My Heart (1996)
  • Until We Can Love (1996)
  • The Sunshine of the Youth (1995)
  • The Scent of Love (1994)
  • Our Own Heaven (1993)

Source: IMDB.com & Wikipedia
Pic credit:
Expo Say

Related stories:
Milyang shines at 6th South Korea Film Awards
Jeon Do-yeon, JYP and André Kim make Koreans proud

Jeon Do-yeon bags 7 awards in 2007
Jeon Do-yeon on Talk Asia
Jeon Do-yeon’s an influential woman

6 thoughts on “Jeon Do-yeon (전도연)

  • @ed, thanks for the info. I didn’t know that as all the Korean-English news sites report that she’s the first Korean actress of win an international award.

    Will word it differently then. Yup, I googled Kang soo-yeong and yeah, she won the best actress award at Venice back in 1987. Cool, but then I wasn’t K-popped then.

  • PrincelyLuna

    ooops sorry … i overlooked u mentioning Oasis there!! heh heh … i guess she won some local awards for the same movie too (as u mentioned .. ‘boatload others’).

    i also like her character in Family Ties. there’s one movie of hers that i want to see, SaKwa which unfortunately, the last time i read, has not been locally released.

  • PrincelyLuna

    did Moon So Ri won the award for Oasis? she’s amazing in that movie.

  • Anonymous

    She’s an enormous talent and hard-working. My favorite role of hers is in Happy End, where her natural acting style reached its peak without doing a lot of “acting showcase” stuff. That said, she may not be the “first ever” to win an international award for acting — Kang soo-yeong won at Venice for Sibaji ’87, Moon so-ri won Venice and a boatload others for Oasis ’02. Jeon’s Cannes award is one of the most prestigeous.

    ed.

  • PrincelyLuna

    she’s one of my fav Korean actress too. seen all her movies except Yagsok (The Promise). the first movie of hers that i saw was the beautiful Harmonium in My Memory which is one of my all time favourite. i can watch it over and over again. she’s also one of the few Korean actresses who dares to bare it all in a movie.

    IMO, she’s an ordinary looking actress with great talent. in fact, i find most of the most talented Korean actresss (and actors) are ordinary looking people … made ‘beautiful’ by the characters they played.

  • I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE HER. (And I’m not Koraen) I think she makes Korea proud, makes women proud, makes actresses proud. She’s absolutely fantastic. I have seen several of her movies and one of my favorites is “My Mother the Mermaid”. Although it is not as “famous” as her more recent dramatic hits like “Secret Sunshine”, it is still probably my favorite of all her movies because it’s so charming and adorable. Plus, she plays TWO characters. Actually, it’s also my sentimental favorite becuase it was the first time I saw her in a movie.

Leave a Reply