My Name is Kim Sam Soon

A somber crowd at Tom Ford’s ready-to-wear fall 2005 Gucci collection in South Korea erupted into cheers as 25-year-old Daniel Henney strode into the spotlight in a tight fitting, all-black outfit earlier this month.

The JoongAng Daily newspaper called it “a rare moment at Korean fashion shows.” According to the newspaper, “The appearance of Mr. Henney, the Eurasian model turned actor who stars in a Korean drama and many advertisements, was the highlight of the evening, even at the dance party led by a New York-based DJ, Ilya.

“Women gushed and sighed all night as they peered — again and again — into their digital cameras and mobile phones that captured the distant image of Daniel Henney in three impossibly sexy Gucci suits.”

One of those crowd members was more excited than the others. Wearing a fashionable black outfit and carrying a Gucci purse, Christine Henney of Carson City was seated just one row from the stage. She had traveled more than 6,000 miles to visit her son in South Korea, where he just happened to be the man of the moment.

“When he came out, the cameras just went absolutely berserk,” Christine said. “Everybody was just screaming.”

The only child of Phillip and Christine Henney has quickly risen to fame thanks to an international modeling career and a starring role as a doctor in love with his patient in the South Korean television dramatic miniseries, “My Name Is Kim Sam-soon.”

Daniel Henney is a 1998 graduate of Carson City-Crystal High School where he was a standout basketball player for the Eagles.

Christine, a registered nurse at Carson City Hospital, arrived in South Korea on July 27 and returned home late Monday night. While there, she saw “The Phantom of the Opera,” toured Seoul in a limousine, visited the presidential grounds and attended interviews, photo shoots and autograph sessions with her son.

“It was unbelievable the things they asked him to sign — shoes, clothing, pictures, ultrasounds of their babies…” she said.

Up to eight bodyguards accompanied Christine and her son just about everywhere they went.

“Every time we went anywhere there was a group of fans,” she said. “As soon as you heard the gasping you would turn around and there they were. No matter what he wore, how he tried to camouflage himself, they would spot him.”

A visit to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner was particularly exciting.

“There had to be at least 500 people there,” Christine said. “We walked in and all of a sudden we just heard everybody scream, cameras going off. It’s unbelievable the way everybody recognizes him. We almost got smothered and had to run out the back without eating.”

A highlight of the trip for Christine was visiting an orphanage she had been adopted from by Americans in 1958. This was the first time Christine had been in Korea since she was an infant. She and her son visited the site of the former Isabelle Orphanage in Pusan, where her parents had left her on the doorstep.

The orphanage was torn down in 1962 and is now Isabelle Junior High/High School. Christine also visited Holt Children’s Services in Seoul, where she stayed while waiting to be picked up by her new parents.

“I wanted to get the feeling of the sense of the orphanage and how the children were cared for and what they were like,” she said. “It was quite emotional. When I got out of the car and saw the building that they had searched and found for me, I was just overwhelmed.”

Daniel Henney is in the process of becoming a spokesman for adopting children of mixed races — like himself — in South Korea.

“The whole trip was a complete adventure,” Christine said. “They treated me like I was the queen of Korea. Everything they did was so extravagant. When I got there everything was given to me, doors were opened, I didn’t have to do anything. If I looked at an item they said, ‘Oh, you want that?’ I’d say, ‘Oh no.’ They’d buy it for me anyway.

“The whole trip was so amazingly great that I haven’t gotten completely settled back into being a Michigan person,” she said.

“To actually see him (Daniel) and have him meet me at the airport, he was so happy and so pleased that his mother could come back to Korea,” Christine said. “He was just ecstatic. He just wanted everything to go so smoothly for me and wanted to help me learn everything about Korea.

“Not only just Korea, but all the Asian countries have taken Dan and made him a part of their family,” she said. “They told me, ‘Your son is a person with all of his thought process coming from his heart.’”

Source: The Daily News 20th August 2005