O Mi-ran

She was born on 28 August 1954 in Ot'an-dong in Chung-guyok, Pyongyang.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=오미란 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Korean Culture |publisher=Academy of Korean Studies |url=https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0074396 |access-date=2024-10-31 |last=Lee |first=Myeong-ja |language=ko}} Her father O Hyang-mun was an actor from {{ill|Jeongok-eup|ko|전곡읍}}, a town in Yeoncheon County (now in South Korea), with a North Korean defector connected to the cinema of North Korea informing Yonhap News Agency that the younger O had originally suffered prejudice due to her South Korean ancestry.{{Cite news |last=Choi|first=Cheok-ho|date=2003-03-11 |title=북 최고배우 오미란의 본향은 경기도 |url=https://www.tongilnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=29095 |access-date=2024-10-31 |work=Tongil News |language=ko |agency=Yonhap News Agency}} She also had several siblings, including actress O Gum-ran.

After she was educated at the National Theater Company Actors' Training Institute, she joined the Pyongyang Art Troupe (now the Mansudae Art Troupe) as a dancer in 1972. Afterwards, she joined the April 25 Film Studio in 1979 and started working in acting, with her debut in Gun Salute (1980). She later starred as Song Rim in the 1987 film A Broad Bellflower and appeared in the 1990 film Traces of Life, for which she won the Best Acting Award at the 1st and 2nd Pyongyang International Film Festival, respectively. She also appeared in the films Morning Star (1983), A Life Full of Ups and Downs (1989-1990), The Nation and Destiny (1999-2000), and Their Life Continues (2002). In 1990, she won Best Korean Actress in 1st New York Inter-Korean Film Festival.

Following the start of her film career, she subsequently became well known as a film star in the country,{{Cite news |last=Gabroussenko |first=Tatiana |date=2016-08-12 |title=The unlikely romantic: how Kim Jong-il introduced love to North Korean cinema |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/12/the-unlikely-romantic-how-kim-jong-il-introduced-love-to-north-korean-cinema |access-date=2024-10-31 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}} and she reportedly had as much monthly living expenses as the average North Korean general.{{cite book|url=https://www.uniedu.go.kr/uniedu/atchfile/down/F000025664.pdf|title=Understanding North Korea|year=2014|page=380|publisher=Ministry of Unification Institute for Unification Education}} She was named Merited Artiste in 1984 and People's Artiste in 1987. Yonhap News Agency called her "North Korea's top actress", with the Choson Film Yearbook calling her "a comrade who kindly guides the audience to the film world by her elegant and delicate expression, clear voice, and passion."{{Cite news |date=2019-12-03 |title=Six Famous North Korean Women |url=https://koryogroup.com/blog/famous-north-korean-women |access-date=2024-10-31 |work=Koryo Tours |archive-date=3 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241103103839/https://koryogroup.com/blog/famous-north-korean-women |url-status=live }} Outside of the country, North Korean defectors consider her "the first North Korean star.

She was married to a painter since 1982. In 2007, Bradley K. Martin said that she was rumoured in the Pyongyang elite to have been among the mistresses kept by Kim Jong Il.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoZx6hOCNukC|title=Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty|first=Bradley K.|last=Martin|year=2007|page=319|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-0699-9 }} O Mi-ran died on 27 June 2006 from breast cancer; she was 52.{{Cite news |date=2006-06-28 |title=북 최고 여배우 오미란씨 사망 |url=https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/entertainment/136725.html |access-date=2024-10-31 |work=The Hankyoreh |language=ko |agency=Yonhap News Agency}} She was interred at the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery, with Kim Jong Il himself giving her grave a wreath in her memory.

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Category:1954 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:North Korean film actresses

Category:20th-century North Korean actresses

Category:21st-century North Korean actresses

Category:People from Pyongyang

Category:Burials at the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery