My Name is Kim Sam Soon

Last month, a Carson City man got to say the words heard so often at awards shows: “I want to thank…”

Daniel Henney, 26, won the Best Dressed award at the MBC Comedy Awards show Dec. 29 and the Best Newcomer award at the MBC Drama Awards show Dec. 30, both in South Korea. He also presented the Program Director’s Choice award winner.

Henney started his newcomer’s award acceptance speech by saying, “I want to thank my mom and dad.” He ended with “Thank you, Korea.”

Henney is the son of Phillip and Christine Henney of Carson City and was a former star basketball player before graduating from Carson City-Crystal High School in 1998. Henney quickly rose to fame thanks to an international modeling career and a starring role as a doctor in love with his patient in last year’s South Korean television dramatic miniseries, “My Name Is Kim Sam-soon.”

He also was chosen as 2005’s Best Actor during a recent South Korean poll of 38,314 teenagers on the Web site puppyred.com.

Henney is now shooting a starring role in “Spring Waltz,” a dramatic miniseries directed by Yoon Suk-ho. The drama will be the last of the director’s television dramas named after the four seasons, which also included “Summer Scent,” “Autumn Fairy Tale” and “Winter Sonata” - three tragic love stories set in their respective seasons.

This drama will revolve around a boy and a girl who fall in love, are forced to break up because of an accident, then meet again when they become adults. The miniseries will cost $4 million to $6 million in American dollars and will air on South Korean television in March.

Christine Henney said her son is shooting the miniseries in Austria right now. She said he surprised the couple by coming home unannounced for three days during Christmas.

“Being named Best Newcomer was quite an honor for him,” his mother said. “Winning the Best Newcomer award is quite a dream come true. He calls it surreal. We’re extremely proud of him.”

As for winning the Best Dressed award, “He looks good in anything,” she laughed.

“I don’t see him slowing down in the future,” Christine added.

Neither do recent South Korean newspaper articles, which roundly praised Henney’s success.

The Korea Times declared, “Daniel Henney may have been the man of 2005. As a Korean actor carrying an exotic aura of the West, Henney has emerged as Korea’s new heartthrob, grabbing hearts of female viewers.”

The Korea Herald noted, “Henney managed to pin down his name as one of the main promising actors, playing the role of a handsome Korean-American doctor in the popular drama.

“But because the public’s interest in Henney so far is not due to his qualities as a good actor, but rather to his appealing mask, he has a task ahead for 2006: To overcome the language barrier and broaden his acting territory,” the newspaper added.

Source: The Daily News 11 Jan 2006