AANHPI: Haing Ngor

Dr. Haing Ngor survived the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime, smuggling his niece to safety in 1979, he then revisited the horror five years later in a movie role, that made him the first asian man to win an Academy Award for best supporting actor.   Ngor was born in Cambodia in 1940. When the Khmer Rouge began the Cambodian genocide in the late 70s, Ngor's status as a doctor put him at serious risk. He had to watch his wife die in childbirth in a concentration camp because revealing his skills could have meant the death of his whole family. Ngor and his orphaned niece escaped to a Thai refugee camp, then emigrated to the U.S.   It was there that a casting director, working on a film about the tragedy, discovered Ngor, who was hesitant at first. He had no previous acting experience, and the process would take him back to Thailand in the role of a Cambodian journalist who survived a similar ordeal to his own. For his part in 1984's  "The Killing Fields" Haing Ngor won the Oscar for best supporting actor - the first and still only Asian man to win that award.   Ngor dedicated the rest of his life to raising awareness of the horrors he and others had survived and advocating for South Asian refugees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices