Long before South Korean dramas became a global entertainment phenomenon, actor Choi Bool-am was helping define what television meant to audiences at home.

His career unfolded before international streaming platforms turned Korean entertainment into a worldwide business. Yet the characters he created, from a determined police detective to a rural community patriarch, became part of the cultural foundation on which subsequent generations of Korean television performers built their careers.

Choi, one of South Korea’s most recognisable television actors, died on October 29 at the age of 87 while receiving treatment at a hospital in Seoul, his family said on Friday.

His death comes at a time when Korean entertainment has an established international audience, with television dramas, films and music reaching viewers well beyond the country’s borders. But Choi’s career belonged to an earlier phase of that evolution, when television was primarily a domestic medium and actors became household names through long-running national broadcasts rather than global streaming releases.

Born Choi Young-han in Incheon in 1939, he began his acting career on stage, making his debut in a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 1959. He joined the National Theater Company of Korea in 1965 and moved into television in 1967.

Over the following decades, he became a familiar presence in South Korean households through productions that reflected the country’s changing society.

The Television Generation That Built South Korea’s Entertainment Industry

Choi’s breakthrough came with MBC’s crime drama Chief Inspector, which ran from 1971 to 1989. He played detective Park Young-han, a determined investigator whose pursuit of justice made him one of the most recognisable television characters of the period.

The series ran for 880 episodes and became an important part of South Korea’s television history. Its appeal went beyond crime-solving, with stories often drawing on real-life cases and reflecting the social pressures accompanying the country’s rapid industrialisation.

The character also established a model for the television detective in South Korea, combining professional authority with empathy for ordinary people.

Choi’s influence extended into another major television institution, Country Diaries, which ran from 1980 to 2002. The rural family drama lasted more than 22 years and produced 1,088 episodes, making it the longest-running television drama in South Korea.

He played Chairman Kim, a village patriarch whose family and community relationships provided the central narrative of the series.

The timing of the programme was significant. South Korea was experiencing rapid urbanisation and industrial development, with millions of people moving away from rural communities towards cities. The drama offered audiences a connection to village life, traditional relationships and the countryside many had left behind.

The series therefore became more than an entertainment programme. It documented aspects of a society undergoing profound economic and cultural change.

A 2021 report by the Korea JoongAng Daily noted that the show had attracted renewed interest among younger viewers nearly two decades after its conclusion, demonstrating the continued appeal of its portrayal of rural Korean life.

Choi’s performances in the two productions represented different sides of the same changing society: the detective navigating a modernising country and the village elder representing its traditional social structure.

His career also coincided with the development of Korean television from its early broadcasting years into a major domestic entertainment industry.

From a National Television Icon to the Streaming Era

South Korean television began developing decades before the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, became internationally prominent.

The country’s television industry expanded through the 1970s and 1980s, while the 1990s brought the foundations of the international distribution of Korean dramas. The arrival of digital platforms later transformed how these productions reached audiences overseas.

Choi’s most enduring television role eventually found a connection with this newer entertainment landscape.

In 2024, MBC released Chief Detective 1958, a prequel to Chief Inspector, with actor Lee Je-hoon portraying a younger version of detective Park Young-han.

The series revisited the character and the world that had made Choi famous more than five decades earlier. Choi himself made a special appearance, linking the original production with its modern reinterpretation.

The new series was also distributed internationally through streaming platforms, including Disney+ in several markets, giving the detective franchise a reach beyond its original domestic television audience.

The revival illustrated how South Korea’s entertainment industry has increasingly drawn on its own television history to develop new productions for contemporary viewers.

For international audiences discovering Korean crime dramas through streaming services, Chief Detective 1958 offered an entry point into a character whose origins lay in the country’s earlier broadcasting era.

Choi’s career also extended beyond acting. He entered politics in 1992, serving as a proportional-representation lawmaker in South Korea’s National Assembly until 1996. From 2011, he hosted KBS’s Korean Cuisine and Dining, a documentary programme exploring regional food traditions and the lives of ordinary Koreans, remaining associated with it for 14 years.

He received several major honours during his career, including the Order of Cultural Merit in 2014.

His contribution to Korean television is difficult to measure through international box-office figures or streaming rankings. Much of his importance was rooted in the domestic audience that grew up watching his performances and the television institutions he helped establish.

But the continued revival of his best-known character demonstrates how stories and performers from an earlier generation can remain relevant as entertainment industries change.

South Korea’s global entertainment success is often associated with contemporary productions and the reach of streaming platforms. Choi’s career offers a reminder that this expansion was preceded by decades of domestic storytelling, sustained television production and performers who built lasting relationships with audiences.

His death marks the passing of one of the central figures of that earlier generation, even as the characters he helped create continue to find new audiences.