lit a candle 21h agoBlue Tower wouldn't have been the same without him. Private Lee was supposed to make us laugh and he did. The way he carried that role, you felt his character's whole heart in it.
Their story
Lee Yong-joo (이용주) was a South Korean model-turned-actor whose face became familiar to television audiences as the clumsy, lovable rookie soldier in tvN's military sitcom Blue Tower and as Jang-kyung, a high-school friend of the crown prince, in MBC's Princess Hours. He died of cardiac arrest on the morning of…
Lee Yong-joo (이용주) was a South Korean model-turned-actor whose face became familiar to television audiences as the clumsy, lovable rookie soldier in tvN's military sitcom Blue Tower and as Jang-kyung, a high-school friend of the crown prince, in MBC's Princess Hours. He died of cardiac arrest on the morning of 29 August 2026 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. He was 44.
He was born in Seoul on 21 August 1982. Korean Wikipedia lists his education as a bachelor's degree in social physical education from Kyungwon University (경원대학교 사회체육학). DramaWiki records height 189 cm and weight 72 kg, consistent with a career that began on the fashion-model track before film and television. English outlets romanize his name as Lee Yong-joo. DramaWiki also lists Yi Yong Ju. Revised Romanization is I Yongju. McCune-Reischauer, as used on the Korean Wikipedia romanization table, is I Yongchu. He is not film director Lee Yong-ju, born in 1970 and known for Architecture 101 and Possessed. He is not the comedian or the politician who share the Hangul name 이용주.
He entered entertainment as a model. Korean Wikipedia later listed advertising credits for brands including KT&G (2003), Haitai Ace crackers (2004), Lotte Confectionery (2005), Orion Choco Pie, LG Tabbook, Dong-A Pharmaceutical Morning Care (2013), and KT olleh (2015). Korean Wikipedia lists Super Daddy (슈퍼대디) as his agency affiliation.
Acting included a minor role in the 2004 film Doma Ahn Jung-geun (also titled Thomas Ahn Jung-geun, or An Jung-geun's Altar, in English coverage). Korean Wikipedia also records a 2001 film credit, Seon-yeong's Letter (선영의 편지). Early television included Hello, Francesca (MBC, 2005), Princess Hours, titled Goong in Korean (MBC, 2006), as Jang-kyung, Unstoppable Marriage (KBS, 2007), and Company Love (OCN, 2007). From 2009 he appeared across seasons of the long-running Rude Miss Young-ae franchise on tvN, also styled Ugly Miss Young-ae, often in cameo and supporting turns that used a version of himself. Korean Wikipedia also lists variety work including Roller Coaster season 2 and Three Idiots.
The role that fixed his public image was Blue Tower (푸른거탑), the 2013 tvN military sitcom spun from Funny TV Roller Coaster. He played Private Lee Yong-joo, a bumbling new recruit whose name matched the actor's own. He continued in Blue Tower Zero and Blue Tower Returns the same year, and later in the rural sitcom Golden Tower, also styled Gold Tower (황금거탑, 2014). DramaWiki notes a contribution to a Gold Tower original-soundtrack group track. Other credits include Two Women's Room (SBS, 2013), a cameo in Let's Eat (tvN, 2013), the 2011 film Tikkeul Moa Romance (티끌 모아 로맨스) and the drama Our House Women, My Unfortunate Boyfriend (2015), Golden Pouch (MBC, 2016), Less than Evil, also styled Bad Detective (MBC, 2018), and a special appearance in ENA's New Recruit (신병, 2022). Korean obituaries treat New Recruit as his final acting credit.
A lasting public fact about the Blue Tower casting was that he had never served in the military. At a 2013 Blue Tower press conference and related interviews he explained that he had been exempted after a diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle thickens abnormally. He said his mother had been hospitalised with the same disease. Doctors advised family screening. He and his older sister were tested. He said he alone shared his mother's diagnosis. He also described occasional chest pain. In February 2026, appearing on actor Lee Jong-hyuk's YouTube channel, "선도부장 이종혁," with Blue Tower colleagues Baek Bong-ki, Jung Jin-wook, and Kim Ho-chang, he again said he had something wrong with his heart and that this explained the exemption. English outlets including CNA and Weekly Chosun note that reporters did not establish a direct causal link between that history and the August 2026 cardiac arrest.
Away from sets he tried business. AsiaOne cites a 2020 interview in which he said he had closed a travel agency because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the February 2026 Lee Jong-hyuk episode he described leaving acting for about six years, spending roughly three and a half years in Busan on another venture that ended badly, then opening a one-person package-tour agency near Moran Market in Seongnam. He joked that he had printed cards for World Travel Agency only to find a Shinsegae Travel Agency on the floor above, and that the shop was only one or two weeks old. Colleagues teased him about renaming it after Blue Tower. He answered that signs are expensive.
News of his death broke on 29 August 2026 through a close friend's social-media notice on and around his Instagram account, stating that he had died suddenly that morning of cardiac arrest and asking people to remember him on his final journey. A funeral hall was opened in Room 5 at Bundang Jesaeng Hospital in Seongnam. Encoffining was reported for 13:00 on 30 August. The funeral procession left at 06:30 on 31 August. Burial and cremation arrangements were with the Seongnam City Funeral Culture Business Center (성남시 장례문화사업소). HanCinema later reported that a phone password and weekend timing complicated family notification after the sudden death.
Blue Tower cast members including Kim Jae-woo, Kim Ho-chang, Baek Bong-ki, Jung Jin-wook, Song Young-jae, and Jung Si-yeon posted public farewells. Kim Jae-woo's widely quoted line asked the new recruit to visit him in dreams and boil ramyeon again. Kim Ho-chang recalled Lee urging him not to quit acting, and saying his intuition was good about Ho-chang's future. Jung Si-yeon, filming far away, wrote that she wished she had reached out once more.
Press summaries, including Artivenews, describe him as unmarried. No spouse is named in the major obituaries consulted, and no children are named. His mother and an older sister appear in the public record only through the 2013 cardiomyopathy interviews. Their given names were not published in the sources used here. No memorial fund was announced in those sources.
He was remembered as the tall model who became television's softest recruit: a supporting player who made large casts warmer, who spoke openly about a hereditary heart condition, and who was still restarting a small travel business when cardiac arrest ended his life at 44. English-language obituaries from CNA Lifestyle, The Straits Times, AsiaOne, and Chosun Daily English introduced him to regional readers in the days after his death. Diggle Classic clip compilations kept the Blue Tower character circulating on YouTube. No Baeksang, Blue Dragon, or equivalent major acting prize was verified in the sources consulted. Popular recognition came through viewership and clip culture rather than a trophy list.
Biography adapted from Korean Wikipedia (이용주 배우); DramaWiki; CNA Lifestyle 31 Aug 2026; Straits Times; AsiaOne; Chosun/OSEN; Sports Chosun; HanCinema..
In their own words
“Even as I write this, I still cannot believe it. Actor Lee Yong-joo, who brought laughter to many as the clumsy yet lovable new recruit Lee Yong-joo in Blue Tower (2013), passed away suddenly from cardiac arrest this morning.”
Close friend's death announcement, English rendering via AsiaOne, 30 August 2026, and similar wording in Korean press. These are the friend's words, not Lee Yong-joo's.
“I have something wrong with my heart.”
Lee Yong-joo, February 2026, on Lee Jong-hyuk's YouTube channel, explaining his military exemption. Korean coverage rendered the line as 심장과 관련해 안 좋은 게 있다. Star News and Ilgan Sports; CNA paraphrased the point as some issues with his heart.
“희귀병인 심근비대증 때문에 신체 검사를 받고 군 면제 판정을 받았다. 어머니가 심근비대증으로 입원한 적이 있다. 누나와 함께 검사를 받았다. 저만 어머니와 같은 병.”
Lee Yong-joo, 2013 Blue Tower-era interviews, as rendered by Ilgan Sports and Sports Seoul, on the rare disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the military exemption, his mother's hospitalisation, and screening with his older sister. A press rendering of those interviews, not a single retrieved audio
“호창아 너 잘될꺼야! 제발 거탑식구들 중에 막내 너라도 포기하지 말고 끝까지 가라고 내촉이 좋다고”
Lee Yong-joo's encouragement to Kim Ho-chang, quoted in Kim Ho-chang's Instagram tribute of 30 August 2026 (@hochang_21). CNA Lifestyle English paraphrase: Ho-chang, you'll do well. Please, as the youngest among the Blue Tower family, don't give up and go all the way. My intuition is good.
“간판이 얼마나 비싼데”
Lee Yong-joo, February 2026 YouTube exchange, when Blue Tower colleagues suggested renaming his new travel agency after the show. Summarized by Nate/Sports Kyunghyang, Wiktree, and Dong-A as the line that signs are expensive.
“야 신병!! 가끔 형 꿈에 놀러와줘.. 우리 옛날처럼 뽀글이 끓여 먹자!”
Kim Jae-woo's farewell to Lee Yong-joo, reported by MK, Sports Chosun, and TV Daily. A colleague tribute, not Lee's own line. English sense: new recruit, visit me in dreams sometimes, and let's boil ramyeon together as we used to.
Photos
1South Korean actor Lee Yong-joo (이용주), born 1982, in a CNA Lifestyle obituary still credited to tvN Asia. Split portrait: studio photograph in black, and the same man in a camouflage jacket with a name tag reading 이 용 주. This is the Blue Tower and Princess Hours actor, not film director Lee Yong-ju
by People Forever
That's what the travel agency was about, I think. He really did care about getting people where they needed to go.