Kim Moo-yeol shot to fame with “Bloodhounds”, and rumors have circulated that he once fell on hard times, even living in a slum at one point. Because the family was low-income, he was exempted from military service, but later still enlisted. Two years ago, Kim Moo-yeol appeared on “You Quiz on the Block” and confirmed that his family background was very difficult: the whole family lived in a wooden village in the mountains, and as the eldest son, he had to take on odd jobs to support the family, and life was far from comfortable.
Kim Moo-yeol disclosed that after his mother was scammed, a series of bad things happened one after another—people even came to paste seal notices on their house, and he had to borrow money from neighbors just to take public transportation. Kim Moo-yeol recalled that when he was 20 or 21, his father became a vegetative state after an accident, and later was diagnosed with cancer. The family was constantly going back and forth from home to the hospital to care for his father.
Because he is the eldest son, when his father fell ill, he always had a mission to “become strong”. Although he was admitted to the theater department of Sungkyunkwan University, due to the family's financial struggles, the tuition became a huge burden, forcing him to take a leave of absence to do various part-time jobs, such as working as a building security guard and passing out flyers. To save money, Kim Moo-yeol would walk home from the subway station, and that hour-long walk became his acting time—he could sing and recite lines. “Thinking back now, I feel that it was the only escape from reality.”
Kim Moo-yeol’s father passed away when he was just over 30. Speaking about his father, his eyes filled with tears as he recalled that while his father outwardly opposed his pursuit of acting, in private he would brag to the neighbors about how great his son was. “Sometimes I think, if my father was still here boasting everywhere now, I might be able to accept it more comfortably, but he’s no longer around now.”
News Source: Liberty Times