Veteran South Korean actor Choi Bool-am, the star forever associated with the classic police drama “Chief Investigator,” has died at the age of 87, according to breaking reports published in South Korea early on Friday, October 30, Korean time.
Sports World and TV Daily both carried the breaking news, with Sports World billing Choi as the “eternal” chief investigator and TV Daily describing him as a “national father” figure in Korean entertainment. The two reports, carried by Naver’s entertainment wire, confirmed his age as 87. No official statement was available at the time of writing.
Choi, born on June 15, 1940, in Incheon, built a career spanning more than five decades and became a household name through “Chief Investigator,” which ran from March 6, 1971, to October 12, 1989. Across 880 episodes, he played the head of an investigation team, and the series became a defining police procedural of its era, so popular that it helped spark a wave of investigative dramas across Korean television.
His connection to the role endured long after the original series ended. Choi was later appointed to honorary police ranks in recognition of the part, and he returned to the world of the drama in 2024, appearing as the older Park Yeong-han in the prequel series “Chief Detective 1958,” a full-circle moment that underlined how closely his name remained tied to the character.
Beyond the detective role, Choi was a familiar presence across Korean film and television, including “Country Diaries” and “Gourmet,” and he spent 14 years hosting the KBS program “Korean Table,” travelling the country to showcase Korean food culture. He stepped down from that program in 2025. In 2014, he received the Eungwan Order of Cultural Merit, one of South Korea’s highest cultural honours.
In recent years, reports about Choi’s health had drawn public concern. In March 2026, he told Munhwa Ilbo in a phone interview that he was undergoing rehabilitation and hoped to return to the screen, and later reports described nerve damage linked to spinal stenosis and significant weight loss. Those earlier health reports are separate from the breaking death reports, which did not, in the material available, attribute a cause.
Further details are expected to follow as family and broadcasters respond to the news.
