Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Samuel from the jacket of his first album 'EYE CANDY' released in 2017. Samuel's Twitter |
By Ko Dong-hwan
The father of K-pop singer Samuel has been killed in Mexico, according to an American news report on July 16.
TV station KGET in Bakersfield, California, said Jose Arrendondo, 58, was found with "signs of blunt force trauma" in the coastal resort city of Cabo San Lucas. The broadcaster quoted local prosecutors.
The victim, according to the report, was a Mexican migrant who crossed the U.S. border at night to become a "classic rags-to-riches" story.
Arrendondo started his American dream in 1977 washing cars at a dealership in Mission Hills, Los Angeles. He was given a chance to sell cars and his career took off. He later owned several dealerships in California's Kern County and a real estate agency.
Arrendondo and his Korean wife had Samuel in Los Angeles in 2002.
 |
| Jose Arrendondo at his 'Family Motors' dealership in Bakersfield, California. Bakersfield.com |
Samuel, 17, most recently managed by Korean K-pop agency Brave Entertainment, became popular on the TV idol audition show "Produce 101: Season 2" on Mnet in 2017. His popularity rose to No.2 among 101 male musician trainees looking to debut in a boy band. He eventually failed to reach the final winners' list, from which the 12-member Wanna One was created.
Before his Produce 101 appearance, he was a member of boy band duo 1PUNCH, launched in 2014. His stage name was "Punch" while the other member was rapper "One."
After Produce 101, the singer began a solo career later in 2017, changing his stage name to Samuel.
He has been active in Korean show business since, appearing on TV and radio shows, at fan meetings, in ads and doing magazine photo shoots.
Samuel's earliest TV commercial was for Bakersfield Auto Mall in 2011, a Volkswagen dealership run by his father. In it, he spoke English, Spanish and Korean.
He began hosting Seoul-based English multimedia news outlet Arirang's "Pops in Seoul" in June 2018 for about a year.
Samuel sued Brave in May, accusing the agency's president, popular K-pop composer Brave Brother, of using him to promote a private business without an agreement and over issues related to payments.
