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‘Everlasting Agnes’ Yoon Seok-hwa Dies at 69 — First-Generation Star Actress and Producer
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
Yoon Seok-hwa, a leading first-generation South Korean stage actress known as ‘Agnes’ from the long-running play The Good Person of Szechwan (translated and starring as Agnes), died at 69 after battling a brain tumor. She debuted in 1975 in the play Kkulmat and rose to stardom through landmark stage works including The Good Person of Szechwan, One Song for One, Psyche, and Letters to My Daughter. Yoon also performed in musicals (Cinderella, Empress Myeongseong, Nonsense, 42nd Street), TV dramas (including Firebird and Shampoo’s Journey), and films (Lethe’s Serenade, Spring Snow). She became a popular advertising figure with a memorable coffee commercial line, “I’m softer than I look,” and even sang in an ice-cream ad. Beyond acting, she founded Dolkkot Company (named after her given name Seok-hwa) in 1994, produced the animated film Hong Gil-dong 95, acquired the performing-arts monthly Gaekseok (publisher until 2013), and ran the site-specific theater Jeongmiso from 2002 to 2019. She and her husband adopted two children and advocated for improved adoption practices, receiving presidential and ministerial honors. Yoon won multiple awards including four Baeksang Acting Awards and the Korea Culture and Arts Award. After health setbacks following a 2022 collapse in the UK and surgery for a brain tumor, she made a brief cameo in a 2023 play — her final stage appearance. (Agnes: the lead character in the play The Good Person of Szechwan)
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