Kim Hye-ja

Kim Hye-ja (Korean: 김혜자; born October 25, 1941) is a South Korean actress and humanitarian. Best known to South Korean audiences as the archetypal mother figure in popular television series such as Country Diaries (1980–2002), What Is Love? (1991), My Mother's Sea (1993), and Roses and Beansprouts (1999). Kim drew international critical acclaim in the noir thriller Mother (2009), The Light in Your Eyes (2019), Our Blues (2022) and Heavenly Ever After (2025).