Jeon Do-yeon - Career

Career

Jeon Do-yeon spent five years starring in television dramas before achieving instant star status with her film debut opposite Han Suk-kyu in The Contact. She went on to establish a reputation as a "chameleon" who can take on a wide variety of roles, from her performance as a doctor in the hit melodrama A Promise, to that of a schoolgirl in The Harmonium in My Memory to that of a wife having an adulterous affair in Happy End. In 1999 and 2000 she received a Best Actress award from both the Blue Dragon and the Grand Bell awards for her role in The Harmonium in My Memory.

In 2001 she very skillfully played a very ordinary bank teller in Park Heung-shik's debut I Wish I Had a Wife. After starring as the tough-talking "Sunglasses" in Ryu Seung-wan's No Blood No Tears, Jeon spent time acting in a TV drama titled Shoot for the Stars. In 2003 she found box-office success in E J-yong's Untold Scandal, based on the famous French novel Dangerous Liaisons. The following year she reunited with director Park Heung-shik in a dual role for the time-bending melodrama My Mother, the Mermaid.

In 2005 Jeon burst back into the limelight playing a prostitute who contracts AIDS in Park Jin-pyo's hard-hitting melodrama You Are My Sunshine. The performance helped turn the film into a box-office hit (3 million+ admissions), and also won her yet more additions to her collection of local acting awards. She then returned to television in Lovers in Prague which depicts the love story between the president's daughter and an ordinary detective; the drama averaged over 27 percent viewer ratings. It is rare for a movie and a drama with the same leading actor or actress to become major hits at the same time, but Jeon managed to pull both roles off perfectly without causing any confusion in the audience.

But it was her role in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine in 2007 that would see her emerge in full glory. Although the film itself, which debuted at Cannes, evoked widely differing assessments from international critics, Jeon's performance was universally praised, and indeed she was presented with a Best Actress award by the Cannes jury -- the first Korean ever to receive an acting award at Cannes.

After making the charming, laidback road movie My Dear Enemy post Cannes, Jeon gave birth to a daughter and rested for a while. In 2010 she re-established her status as Korea's premier A-list actress, headlining the controversial remake The Housemaid.

In caper movie Countdown Jeon played a female con artist who risks her life for ten days for a final deal with a cold-hearted debt collector. Countdown premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Although not as broadly popular with audiences as some other stars, Jeon is widely respected for her acting abilities, and many young actresses cite her as a role model.