Born as Lee Dong-yeong in 1959 in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Lee Jin-yeong attended middle and high school in is hometown, before moving to the neighbouring city of Seoul to pursue a movie career, attending the Korean Academy Of Actors.

He debuted as a stuntman on Richard Park Woo-sang's The Big Opponent (aka A Blow Of Fury), followed by the Korean/Taiwan cross-over Seven Men Of Kung-Fu before quickly picking up a more substantial acting role acting role. This sudden step up in his career was secured by fellow Korean martial arts cinema legend Kwon Il-soo, who had worked with Lee in his previous films and was impressed with his martial arts skills and screen presence.

Thanks to a referral by Kwon, Lee was given the role of Yong Ho-rim in director Kim Seon-gyung's Emperor Of Kung Fu (aka Duel Of The Tough). This character was one of the bodyguards of the main villain, giving Lee not only a chance to say some dialogue and get some decent screen time, but also a great opportunity to show off his spearmanship in a one-on-one fight against the film's star Wang Ryong (aka Mike Wong).

Even though he was a prolific martial arts actor, the only official credit he has as a martial arts director was in 1984's Warrior in which he played one of the main villains as well as being one of the assistant martial arts director's, under the film's star Song Jae-cheol. Warrior is an interesting film which brought together an impressive cast of well established martial arts actors along with several well respected martial arts instructors of the time who had little to no previous acting credits, to create a very interesting Korean martial arts experience.

He worked on over 90 different films and TV shows, including: 1984's Fighter starring Wang Ho (aka Casanova Wong) for KBS; and 1995's Hourglass starring Choe Min-soo for SBS. Lee's tall stature made him great casting for the many villains he played over the years, but also helped him getting cast in important roles on the hero's side, often playing stoic and fatherly roles. He also had several opportunities to feature in non-martial art films, a notable one being 1986's Lee Jang-ho's Baseball Team. It was a sports drama centred around baseball that was based on the comic Alien Baseball team, written by Lee Hyeon-se. The film starred An Seong-gi (widely recognised as one of Korea's finest actors) and did very well at the Korean box office.

Remaining good friends with Kwon Il-soo he became a regular player in Kwon's own films when he turned his attention to directing, notably appearing in several of his gangster films: The Nationwide Constituency [1991]; it's sequel, The Nationwide Constituency 2 [1993]; and playing the role of Chairman Choe in The Independent Of The Underworld [1993].

Arguably the highlight of Lee's career came with yet another gangster film from the 90s. He was the co-lead with Keo Ryong (aka Dragon Lee) in Emperor Of The Underworld [1994] playing the role of Joo-cheol. Alongside Keo Ryong, he takes on the film's director and “King Of The Leg Fighters” Hwang Jeong-ri in a climactic final battle. The film also brings together a whole hoard of Korea's top action stars including: Hwang's own brother Hwang Choon-soo; Hyeon Kil-soo, Kwon Seong-yeong; Hwang In-jo; Jeong Bong-yeon; Cha Ryong; and Kang Yong-ho.

Even after taking a back seat from stardom, Lee was still a busy man, not only raising a son and two daughters, but he still kept himself very much involved in the film industry. The former actor-turned-businessman, was running welfare projects for filmmakers, secretly carried out scholarship projects for descendants of movie stars and was a regular participant in charity organisations. His contributions earned him a high level of recognition and trust among seniors and juniors in the film industry.

A rather memorable charitable event that Lee Jin-yeong participated in was the 2007 “Peace Star Cup”. It was an international celebrity soccer tournament, held at the Uijeongbu Sports Complex and hosted by the Sports Sun Moon Peace Soccer Foundation. It has been held every year since 2007, with the goal of supporting public projects, creating a healthy sports culture , and vitalising a culture of donation . It was established to fight AIDS in children around the world, with all proceeds from the contest, including the admission fee, being forwarded through UNICEF. Lee was a member of the “Big Star Team” managed by fellow martial arts star Kim Yeong-in; which featured many other former Korean action actors including: Keo Ryong; An Seong-gi; Kim Ha-rim; Hwang In-jo; Han Tae-il; Kim Bo-seong; Park Dong-ryong; Kook Jeong-hwan; and Park Joong-hoon, among others.

Lee's continuous efforts over the years lead to him becoming vice-president of the KFAA (Korea Film Actors Association), president of the Asan city branch of the Federation Of Korean Film-makers and senior vice-president of the Asan Arts Foundation. He's also received many awards and commendations such as the “Proud Film Welfare Achievement Award” on the 53rd Film Day in 2015 for his work as the Welfare Society chairman of the KFAA; but also the “Proud Film Development Achievement Award”; and in 2019 he presented with the “Presence Of Korea Award”.

All of this made him an ideal candidate for the 7th president of the KFAA, a position he would compete for beginning on the 1st of April 2021, against fellow martial arts actor (also singer, model and Taekwondo champion) Lee Dong-joon. The vote was held on the 15th of April and despite Lee Dong-joon having more star clout with the general public, Lee Jin-yeong's record gave him the edge with both young and old within the industry, winning with a hefty 102 votes out of 165.

Lee Jin-yeong began his 3 year term as the 7th president of the KFAA with this inauguration pledge to “extend members' welfare by establishing a labour union, digitise the association's administration, strengthen competitiveness through holding film festivals and discovering new actors, strengthen Korean movie leadership through reorganisation of the association and reinforcement of professional manpower.”. These projects have been systematically carried out since the first day of inauguration.

Further to that Lee also announced his will to"improve the treatment of actors, increase rights, realise welfare, and secure finances as pledges, and practice the mandatory film appearance system for members without fail, to achieve guarantees for appearances. The establishment of a labour union for legitimate rights development, legal and accounting free advice and guaranteed contributions, medical tax benefits, corporate sponsorship for the welfare of realistic actors, raising the financial independence of the association through various forms of fundraising I will do my best ” much to the encouragement and applause from fellow filmmakers in attendance of the ceremony.

Lee is still hard at work in his role as president and has attended many recent events held to promote the Korean film industry including: the 1st Asan Chungmugong International Action Film Festival which was held in his hometown and co-sponsored by the KFAA in April 2022; the 58th Grand Bell Awards in December of the same year; and on the 27th of April 2023 he attended the 24th Jeoju International Film Festival.

J.J. Hayden [03-Jul-2023]