Haing Somnang Ngor (Khmer: ហាំង សំណាង ង៉ោ;
Chinese: å ³æ¼¢æ½¤; pinyin: Wú Hà nrùn; March 22, 1940 â€" February
25, 1996) was a Cambodian American gynecologist, obstetrician, actor
and author. He is best remembered for winning the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his debut performance in the film
The Killing Fields (1984), in which he portrayed Cambodian journalist
and refugee Dith Pran.Ngor is the only actor of Asian descent to win
an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He survived three terms in
Cambodian prison camps, using his medical knowledge to keep himself
alive by eating beetles, termites, and scorpions; he eventually
crawled between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese lines to safety in a Red
Cross refugee camp. His mother was Khmer and his father was of Chinese
Teochew descent. Ngor and Harold Russell are the only two
non-professional actors to win an Academy Award in an acting
category.Ngor continued acting for the rest of his life, most notably
in My Life (1993), portraying spiritual healer Mr. Ho opposite Michael
Keaton and Nicole Kidman.Born in Samrong Young (in 1940, French
Indochina), Bati district now, Takeo province, Cambodia, Ngor trained
as a surgeon and gynecologist. He was practicing in the capital, Phnom
Penh, in 1975 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge seized control of the country
and proclaimed it Democratic Kampuchea. He was compelled to conceal
his education, medical skills, and even the fact that he wore glasses
to avoid the new regime's intense hostility to intellectuals and
professionals. He was expelled from Phnom Penh along with the bulk of
its two million inhabitants as part of the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero"
social experiment and imprisoned in a concentration camp along with
his wife, My-Huoy, who subsequently died giving birth. Although a
gynecologist, he was unable to treat his wife, who required a
Caesarean section, because he would have been exposed, and both he and
his wife (as well as the child) would very probably have been killed.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Ngor worked as a doctor in
a refugee camp in Thailand and left with his niece for the United
States on August 30, 1980. In America, Ngor was unable to resume his
medical practice, and he did not remarry.
Chinese: å ³æ¼¢æ½¤; pinyin: Wú Hà nrùn; March 22, 1940 â€" February
25, 1996) was a Cambodian American gynecologist, obstetrician, actor
and author. He is best remembered for winning the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his debut performance in the film
The Killing Fields (1984), in which he portrayed Cambodian journalist
and refugee Dith Pran.Ngor is the only actor of Asian descent to win
an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He survived three terms in
Cambodian prison camps, using his medical knowledge to keep himself
alive by eating beetles, termites, and scorpions; he eventually
crawled between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese lines to safety in a Red
Cross refugee camp. His mother was Khmer and his father was of Chinese
Teochew descent. Ngor and Harold Russell are the only two
non-professional actors to win an Academy Award in an acting
category.Ngor continued acting for the rest of his life, most notably
in My Life (1993), portraying spiritual healer Mr. Ho opposite Michael
Keaton and Nicole Kidman.Born in Samrong Young (in 1940, French
Indochina), Bati district now, Takeo province, Cambodia, Ngor trained
as a surgeon and gynecologist. He was practicing in the capital, Phnom
Penh, in 1975 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge seized control of the country
and proclaimed it Democratic Kampuchea. He was compelled to conceal
his education, medical skills, and even the fact that he wore glasses
to avoid the new regime's intense hostility to intellectuals and
professionals. He was expelled from Phnom Penh along with the bulk of
its two million inhabitants as part of the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero"
social experiment and imprisoned in a concentration camp along with
his wife, My-Huoy, who subsequently died giving birth. Although a
gynecologist, he was unable to treat his wife, who required a
Caesarean section, because he would have been exposed, and both he and
his wife (as well as the child) would very probably have been killed.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Ngor worked as a doctor in
a refugee camp in Thailand and left with his niece for the United
States on August 30, 1980. In America, Ngor was unable to resume his
medical practice, and he did not remarry.
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