Haing S. Ngor

He eventually survived the genocide, immigrating to the United States in 1980. There, he became active in humanitarian efforts assisting the Cambodian community. In 1996, Ngor was murdered outside his home in Los Angeles. The case was speculated to be linked to the Khmer Rouge, which remains unconfirmed.

• Name — Haing S. Ngor • Born — 22 March 1940 • Birthplace — Samrong Yong, French Cambodia • Died — 1996 February 25 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Death Cause — Murder (gunshot wounds) • Resting Place — Rose Hills Memorial Park • Birth Name — Haing Somnang Ngor • Citizenship — * Cambodia (1953–1986) • U.S. (from 1986) • Occupation — * Actor • physician • activist • Years Active — 1984–1996 • Relatives — Chan Sarun (brother)

Haing Somnang Ngor was born on March 22, 1940, in Samrong Yong, a Cambodian village in the present-day Bati district of Takéo province. At the time, Cambodia was part of French Indochina. His mother was Khmer, and his father was of Chinese descent. Ngor trained as a gynecologist and obstetrician. He practiced in Phnom Penh before the capture of the city by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in 1975, marking the start of the Cambodian genocide. Ngor had to conceal his education, medical skills, and the fact that he wore glasses to avoid the new regime's intense hostility to intellectuals and professionals. Ngor was expelled from Phnom Penh with the bulk of its two million inhabitants as part of the Khmer Rouge's idea Year Zero and sent to a rice farm with his wife, Chang My-Huoy, who required a cesarean section and died with the couple's unborn child during labor in 1978 because it was impossible to perform the surgery without risking the whole family's life. He survived three terms in prison, using his medical knowledge to keep himself alive by eating beetles, termites, and scorpions. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Ngor and his niece crawled to safety in a refugee camp, which was run by the Red Cross in Thailand, and he subsequently worked as a physician there. The next year, they moved to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. Later in his life, Ngor was unable to resume his medical practice and did not remarry.

Despite having no previous acting experience, Ngor was cast as Cambodian-American journalist Dith Pran in the biographical drama film The Killing Fields (1984), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first actor of Asian descent to win the award and one of the only two amateur actors to win an Academy Award, following Harold Russell. Ngor was not initially interested in the role, but interviews with the filmmakers changed his mind, as he recalled that he promised his wife to tell Cambodia's story to the world. After appearing in the film, he told People, "I wanted to show the world how deep starvation is in Cambodia, how many people die under communist regime. My heart is satisfied. I have done something perfect." In 1987, Ngor published his autobiography, Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey, in which he described his life under the Khmer Rouge. Ngor went on to appear in various other onscreen projects, most memorably in Vanishing Son (1994–1995) and the biographical war drama film Heaven & Earth (1993). He also appeared in the Hong Kong action film Eastern Condors (1987). Ngor appeared in a supporting role in the 1989 Vietnam War drama The Iron Triangle and guest-starred in a two-episode storyline on the acclaimed series China Beach (episodes "How to Stay Alive in Vietnam 1 & 2") as a wounded Cambodian prisoner of war who befriends Colleen McMurphy while under her care. Ngor guest-starred in an episode of Miami Vice called "The Savage / Duty and Honor". In My Life (1993), Ngor portrayed Mr. Ho, a spiritual healer who provides guidance for Bob Jones (Michael Keaton) and his wife Gail (Nicole Kidman) after Bob is diagnosed with terminal cancer, months before the birth of the couple's first child.

Ngor and his close friend Jack Ong established the Dr. Haing S. Ngor Foundation to assist in raising funds for Cambodian aid. As part of his humanitarian efforts, Ngor built an elementary school and operated a small sawmill that provided jobs and an income for local families.

Ngor became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1986. He was a Buddhist.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1987 — Miami Vice — Nguyen Van Trahn — Episode: "The Savage / Duty and Honor" • 1989 — Highway to Heaven — Truong Vann Diep — Episode: "Choices" • China Beach — Seak Yin — Episodes: "How to Stay Alive in Vietnam (Parts 1 & 2)" • 1992 — The Commish — Nhu Hao Duong — Episode: "Charlie Don't Surf"

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