South Korean veteran actor Shin Sung-il died of lung cancer on Sunday. He was 81.

An official at the Korea Film Actors Association said that Shin, the honorary chairman of the association’s board of directors, died at 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

Shin, the most popular heartthrob of South Korea's movie industry in the 1960s and 70s, had been undergoing chemotherapy at a hospital in South Jeolla Province since he was diagnosed with stage-three lung cancer in June last year.

He debuted in 1960 and appeared in more than 520 films, including "The Barefooted Young" and "Keep Silent When Leaving."

Shin is survived by his wife, actress Um Aeng-ran, a son and two daughters.