Remembering 'star maker': forerunner, mentor

By Kang Aa-young

Actor-turned-designer Hah Yeong-soo, who helped boost Korea's fashion and entertainment industries, has passed away from cancer at the age of 69.

Hah died at 2:45 a.m. at a hospital in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday. According to his family, he suffered from liver cancer, gallbladder cancer and cerebral infarction.

Kan Ho-sup, a professor of fashion at Hongik University in Seoul, said he remembers Ha as a forerunner ― a post-modern actor, director and designer. “He was multi-tasker, who was always ahead of his time,” Kan said.

Hah debuted in 1969 as an actor and starred in films such as “Heavenly Homecoming to Stars” and “The Rules of the Game.”

He then turned his passion to fashion design from the mid-1970s and established a successful career in the fashion industry. He won the best costume award at the Chunsa Film Festival in 1991 and the Grand Bell Awards in 1992.

In the 1990s, he utilized his remarkable ability to find diamonds in the rough as an entertainment planner, better known as “the golden Hahnds of Midas” in the entertainment field for discovering A-listers, including Lee Jung-jae, Choi Min-soo, Lee Mi-sook and Joo Jin-mo.

"I remember him as a mentor,” actor Shin Hyun-ho told The Korea Times. Shin said Hah was the one who saw his potential and taught him some important lessons for becoming an actor.

“I was first introduced to him by an actress and singer I know, Jang Mi-hwa, who held a concert for her 50th anniversary. At the concert, Hah came to me first and said he thinks I would become a successful actor,” the 34-year-old actor said, calling Hah his “teacher.”

“Soon after, he contacted me and taught me about being an actor in many ways, including mindset, basic trainings,” Shin recalled. “He had many up-and-coming actors like me around. Though he was successful as an actor, entrepreneur and fashion designer, I think he found it enjoyable to keep putting his efforts into giving lessons to those aspiring actors.”

The funeral home is set up at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul and the main funeral service will be held on Tuesday.