Lim Young-woong, first Korean 'Waiting for Godot' actor, dies at 89

Lim Young-woong, the president of Sanwoollim Theater Company and the "godfather of Korean theater," died on Saturday at the age of 89.

Lim Young-woong, founder of Sanwoollim Theater Company, dies at 89 [SANWOOLLIM]

Lim Young-woong, the president of Sanwoollim Theater Company and the "godfather of Korean theater," died on Saturday at the age of 89.

Lim died at 3:23 a.m. at the Seoul National University Hospital on Saturday from his chronic ailment, according to the National Academy of Arts (NAA).

Lim was born in 1934 in Seoul and began his career in theater and play in 1955 and came to stardom when he played the first domestic run of Samuel Beckett's famed play "Waiting for Godot" in 1969. He has since been renowned for having heightened the quality and esteem of the Korean theater industry, both as an actor and director.

He founded the Sanwoollim Theater Company in 1970 and opened up his theater in western Seoul's Hongdae neighborhood in 1985. Sanwoollim has since established itself as a symbol of Korean drama and theater, often compared to Hakchon Theater, one of the longest-standing theaters in Korea that closed last March.

Lim performed "Waiting for Godot" over 1,500 times with Sanwoollim, meeting with over 220,000 theatergoers in the process.

"Next year would have been the 40th anniversary of the Sanwoollim theater but my father didn't get to see that," Lim Young-woong's son, Lim Su-hyeon, whois also the art director of Sanwoollim, told Yonhap.

"We hope you remember the great pillar of Korean theater."

Lim Young-woong is survived his wife, son and daughter. He will be buried at the Seoul Memorial Park in southern Seoul on Tuesday.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]