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Haing S. Ngor (1940 - 1996)
Haing S. Ngor was born on March 22nd, 1940, in Samrong
Young, Cambodia. He was a skilled gynecologist and surgeon
but in 1975 he was ordered out of Phnom Penh along with
the rest of the city's 2 million inhabitants after the
Khmer Rouge takeover . He then endured four years of
starvation and torture in a sort of concentration camp,
where he made secret his profession and level of education
for he would be killed if he was found out. After the
Vietnam invasion in 1979, he and his niece refugeed
to thailand and then to the United States.
Although Haing S. Ngor had no acting experience he
was chosen for the role of the journalist's assistant
trapped in the killing fields of Cambodia. It is sort
of ironic that he won an Oscar for a role in a movie
about the killing fields, when he was a survivor of
the real killing fields. He was the first non-professional
since Harold Russell (best supporting actor 1946) to
win an Oscar.
Since then Haing S. Ngor has occasionally appears in
such films as Vietnam (1989), and the Iron Triangle
(1990) but spent most of his time helping refugees from
Southeast Asia. In 1988 he made an autobiography of
his life, "Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey."
In 1996, Ngor was shot to death in his garage. Some
say that he was killed by Khmer Rouge agents but it
was found that he was probably killed while resisting
being robbed by gang members.
Haing S. Ngor's other films include:
VIET NAM WAR STORY: THE LAST DAY
THE IRON TRIANGLE
AMBITION
HEAVEN AND EARTH
MY LIFE
FORTUNES OF WAR
THE DRAGON GATE
HIT ME
Ngor's televisiion credits include...
IN LOVE AND WAR
LAST FLIGHT OUT
VANISHING SON (2, 3, 4 )
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