Kim Soo Mi, born in Haeshin, Gunsan, Jeollabuk, South Korea, is a South Korean actress. She has had a prolific career in film and television. Kim debuted in a talent contest in 1970, then shot to fame in “Country Diaries”. The landmark TV series aired for almost 20 years, making Kim one of the most popular Korean actresses of the 1980s.
In 2003, she made a memorable cameo as a profanity-spouting ahjumma in the Jang Nara comedy “Oh! Happy Day”. It successfully revamped her image and rejuvenated her fading career. Kim quickly became known in the Korean entertainment industry as the “Queen of Ad-lib,” with her comic talent showcased in many of her succeeding projects, notably “Mapado”, “Twilight Gangsters”, “Granny’s Got Talent” (2015), and the “Marrying the Mafia” sequels.
Kim also gained attention for her turns in more serious fare, such as 2006’s “Barefoot Ki Bong”, a heartwarming pic about a developmentally disabled man. Her 2011 film “Late Blossom” is a romance between two elderly couples, a topic rarely explored in Korean cinema. The low-budget indie became a sleeper hit, and for her portrayal of an Alzheimer’s-afflicted woman, Kim won Best Supporting Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
In 1998, Kim’s chauffeur-driven BMW shot backward, killing her mother-in-law. Kim filed a ₩1 billion lawsuit against BMW, alleging that the sudden start had been a car defect. The Seoul District Court ruled in the automaker’s favor in 2003, saying that it was unclear whether the accident was caused by driver error or a sudden start. Kim filed an appeal at the Seoul High Court.
She headed the publicity as part of the organizing committee of the 1999 Hanam International Environment Expo.
Since 2003, Kim has been the chairman of the Department of Theater and Film at Soongsil University’s College of Social Sciences.
