In an interview published by The Chosun Ilbo on January 19, Oh So Young expressed her gratitude to those who supported her family during their time of loss. “After sending my husband off, my mind was in such a haze that I kept thinking of people I hadn’t yet thanked,” she said. “So many people stayed with us until the very end of his final journey, and I am sincerely grateful.”
She added that hearing younger actors recount their memories with Ahn Sung Ki brought her great comfort. “Senior figures like Chairman Shin Young Kyun and former Busan International Film Festival chairman Kim Dong Ho also stayed by our side, even though it must have been painful for them to send off a junior. I think my husband would want to greet them from heaven.”
This marked Oh So Young’s first official media interview. Married to Ahn Sung Ki since 1985, she had spent more than 40 years quietly supporting his career while avoiding the spotlight. Despite her exhaustion and a hoarse, breaking voice after the funeral, she agreed to speak, saying, “I truly wanted to express my thanks.”
Recalling December 30 of last year, the day her husband collapsed, she said it had been an ordinary, peaceful day. Ahn Sung Ki had been sitting in a chair watching television when she handed him a snack, saying, “Please have this.” It became the last thing she ever said to the man she had shared her life with for 42 years. Although emergency responders arrived quickly, when she regained awareness, her husband had already been placed in his coffin.
“I gently touched his cheek and thanked him for loving me so deeply, for being a wonderful husband and a devoted father to our two sons,” she said.
The memorial mass was held at Myeongdong Cathedral, the very place where the couple had married in May 1985. “During the mass, our wedding day came vividly back to me,” Oh shared. “It felt as though we were being allowed to say goodbye as husband and wife in the same place where we first became one.”
Their love story began in 1982. Oh, then a senior majoring in sculpture at Ewha Womans University, was rollerblading in Taereung when she was approached by Shin Seung Soo—then an assistant director to Bae Chang Ho—and began working as a commercial model. She later met Ahn Sung Ki during a hospital visit and remembered her first impression fondly: “He looked kind, and his lips were beautiful.”
At the time, she didn’t fully grasp how famous he was and simply thought of him as an older bachelor. But Ahn Sung Ki, eager to see her again, asked Shin Seung Soo to arrange another meeting. The two grew closer through outings to Yongin Recreation Forest and an exhibition of Henry Moore’s sculptures. “He became my first love—and my last,” she said.
When Ahn Sung Ki went to the United States to film Deep Blue Night (1985), the long separation tested their relationship. During those months apart, he sent her handwritten letters whenever he could. One letter, written in the early hours of Christmas Day in 1984, was filled with playful, affectionate lines that reflected his gentle personality.
After their marriage, Oh So Young took on multiple roles for her husband, acting as his manager and stylist while also driving him to schedules when he had no agency. “The more he appeared in good projects and received awards, the happier I felt,” she said. “Watching him try to be a good husband at home and a good father to our children made it possible for me to love him consistently for over 40 years.”
Their eldest son, Ahn Da-bin, an artist currently working in the United States, returned overseas on January 17. Oh shared that both sons are deeply thankful to everyone who offered help and support. “My husband spent his life trying to live as a good person,” she said. “In accordance with his wishes, our children will continue striving to live kind, sincere lives.”
Remembered not only for his extraordinary career but also for his humanity, Ahn Sung Ki lives on in the quiet devotion, love, and gratitude of the family he cherished most.
Sources: Wikitree