Haing S. Ngor

Dr. Haing Somnang Ngor was born on March 22, 1940, in Samrong Yong. Working as a physician and obstetrician in Phnom Penh, Ngor survived four harrowing years of torture, forced labor, and starvation under the Khmer Rouge, surviving only by hiding his medical education (while helplessly watching his wife die in childbirth due to lack of medical tools).

Escaping to Thailand and the United States in 1980, Ngor was cast with no prior acting experience to portray photojournalist Dith Pran in Roland Joffé's 1984 masterpiece The Killing Fields. His electrifying performance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor—the first Asian actor to win the award. He established humanitarian foundations building schools and orphanages in Cambodia before his tragic murder in Los Angeles in 1996.