JANG Jin-young, born in 1972, was majoring in fashion design when her hairdresser recommended her to enter the 1993 Miss Korea beauty pageant. She followed the advice and won the South Chungcheong provincial heat before progressing to the final, which led her to start a career as a model for several TV commercials. She was offered her first role in TV series <Angel in My Heart> (1997) and gained further experience in acting by appearing in series such as the youth sitco...More

JANG Jin-young, born in 1972, was majoring in fashion design when her hairdresser recommended her to enter the 1993 Miss Korea beauty pageant. She followed the advice and won the South Chungcheong provincial heat before progressing to the final, which led her to start a career as a model for several TV commercials. She was offered her first role in TV series <Angel in My Heart> (1997) and gained further experience in acting by appearing in series such as the youth sitcom <Three Guys and Three Girls> later that year and drama <Should Have A Beautiful Heart> in 1998, before making her big screen debut in the fantasy drama film <Ghost In Love> (1999). She was first noticed in KIM Jee-woon’s <The Foul King> (2000), where she played the professional wrestling trainer of SONG Kang-ho’s bored bank clerk, and gained critical acclaim the following year with her first lead role in YOON Jong-chan’s debut feature <Gooseflesh> (2001), a low budget horror film that earned her several top acting awards, notably at Fantasporto and the Blue Dragon Film Awards. She then portrayed a designer in her late twenties standing at a crossroad in her life in <Singles> (2003), a commercial hit with 2.2 million viewers for which she is best remembered today. In 2005, she reunited with YOON on the set of <Blue Swallow>, in which she played PARK Kyung-won, arguably the first Korean female aviator, but the release of the film was met with criticism and boycott for its alleged glorification of a pro-Japanese figure. This controversy didn’t prevent her from receiving a Best Actress accolade from the Korean Association of Film Critics, though. In <Between Love And Hate> (2006), she played a bargirl who has hit rock bottom and embarks on a rocky relationship with an engaged man. She made a long-awaited return to television in 2007 with a role in the blockbuster political drama TV series <Lobbyist>, but was forced to put her career on hold in 2008 after she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. After one year fighting against the illness, she died on September 1, 2009. Less