Lee won five Golden Bell Awards over the course of his career.[1] He was diagnosed with dementia in 2013, and as a result, his daughter Lee Fang-yi accepted his final Golden Bell awarded for special contributions, in his stead. At the 2015 ceremony, she stated, "My father has dedicated himself to radio and it has been his life. Even though he has forgotten much, for him the most important thing is that his listeners still remember him."[3] Before Lee died at home in Kaohsiung, aged 74 on 22 April 2017, he had already been hospitalized four times that year due to complications of pneumonia.[1]
