Celebrating the best in South-East Asian showbusiness

Haing S. Ngor

Cambodia is home to South-East Asia’s first and to date, only Oscar winner, Haing S. Ngor, in the Best Supporting Actor category. Ngor, who passed away in 1996, lived under the Khmer Rouge rule for four years before leaving to the United States in 1980.

A casting director spotted Ngor while he was attending a wedding near Los Angeles. He landed the role as a real-life Cambodian journalist, Dith Pran, who partnered with New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg to report on the Cambodian genocide in The Killing Fields.