Haing S. Ngor

Haing Somnang Ngor (Khmer: ហាំង សំណាង ង៉ោ; March 22, 1940 – February 25, 1996) was a Cambodian and American actor, physician, and activist. He made his acting debut in the biographical drama film The Killing Fields (1984) as journalist Dith Pran, 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 practiced as a physician before the start of the Cambodian genocide in 1975. He eventually survived the genocide, immigrating to the United States in 1980.