Haing S. Ngor was a native of Cambodia, and before the war was a physician (obstetrics) and medical officer in the Cambodian army. He became a captive of the Khmer Rouge during the and was imprisoned and tortured; in order to escape execution he denied being a doctor or having an education. He moved to the U.S. as a refugee in 1980, and though he had no formal acting experience, he was chosen to portray photographer Dith Pran in The Killing Fields and won an Academy Award. He went on to a modestly distinguished acting career, while continuing to work with human rights organizations in Cambodia on improving the conditions in resettlement camps, as well as attempting to bring the perpetrators of the Cambodian massacre to justice. On 25 February 1996, Ngor was found shot to death in the garage of his apartment building in Los Angeles. Relatives and friends speculated that the killing was revenge for his opposition to the Khmer Rouge.


He lost half his right little finger to the Khmer Rouge. He was probably shot during the robbery for resisting giving up a cherished gold watch and chain bearing the picture of his wife, whom Khmer Rouge soldiers allowed to die in childbirth in 1975. Was the second Asian actor to win an Oscar. Miyoshi Umeki was the first. 7 July 2005 - A US federal appeals court reinstated the 1998 convictions, rejecting claims of misconduct on the part of the original prosecutor. One of eight actors of Asian descent nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category. The others are Miyoshi Umeki who won Best Supporting Actress nominated for Sayonara (1957), Sessue Hayakawa nominated for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Mako nominated for The Sand Pebbles (1966), Ben Kingsley who won Best Actor for Gandhi (1982), Pat Morita nominated for The Karate Kid (1984), Ken Watanabe nominated for The Last Samurai (2003) and Rinko Kikuchi nominated for Babel (2006).