Before he appeared in "The Heirs," it might have been possible to think of Lee Min Ho as just an actor. And a good one. He won acting awards for his work in "City Hunter" and "Faith." But given the recent surge in his popularity he might be more accurately described as a star.

In the last few weeks, fans from all over the world arrived in force at his filming locations for "The Heirs." Despite the cold weather, they waited hours just to get a glimpse of him.

"Wherever Lee Min Ho goes, there are always hundreds of fans who crowd together to follow him," said a representative from his agency, Starhaus Entertainment. "Many fans try to see him while he is filming, including showing up at the school and restaurants. Some fans come with their mothers, and some fans come from countries such as Japan, China, and even a few come from as far as America and Chile."

Occasionally the fans converge very quickly and during the filming of "The Heirs" this caused some scary moments. Fortunately, the crewmembers have been able to hold the crowd in check.

By now the actor should be used to fans showing up to greet him but he is still occasionally caught off guard by the reach of his popularity. When he arrived in LAX to shoot the California scenes of "The Heirs," he seemed surprised that hundreds of fans were waiting to greet him.

He already faces such airport scenes in the Philippines, China and Japan. And future trips to the U.S. may turn up more of a welcoming crowd as U.S.-based fans for his dramas are only increasing. And while he's always very gracious to his fans on stage, it can be very scary to suddenly be surrounded by a group of strangers chanting your name.

The fans that show up to greet him are only a small percentage of his growing fan base. His Facebook page already has 10 million likes. And that figure would be much bigger if his Chinese fans could access Facebook. He won several popularity awards in China and "The Heirs" already earned more than 160 million views on Youku, China's popular video streaming site.

In Korea the series exceeded 20 percent in the ratings.

While Lee Min Ho is grateful for his fans and has said that they motivate him to do better, it's likely that as his popularity grows their presence will become an even bigger part of his life. Hollywood is a definite possibility in his future but wherever he goes, he may find it difficult to go there without attracting attention.