Haing S. Ngor: What's in an Oscar?

On the evening of the 57th Academy Awards in 1985, F. Murray Abraham won Best Actor, Sally Field took home Best Actress, and “Amadeus” claimed Best Picture. In the midst of it all was the announcement for Best Supporting Actor. The winner was an Asian-American man few people had ever heard of, having acted in only one motion picture. This person was Dr. Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian-American man who took home the Oscar that night for his debut role in the film “The Killing Fields.”

Walking away with the Oscar

that evening, he was to that date and still now the only Asian American who has won the Best Supporting Actor award. What’s interesting is also in the running for Best Supporting Actor that year was Noriyuki "Pat" Morita- as Mr. Miagi in “The Karate Kid.” It makes you think when the last time two Asian-American men have competed for the same award at the Oscars...incredible. Ngor’s tremendous success that year brought huge recognition for the Asian American community in the film industry. That Oscar winning night alone stood as a huge moment for a generation of Asian actors struggling to find work as well as for the Asian American population as a whole.

But what’s so important here, more crucial than all the above, is the fact that not only did Ngor become an Oscar winner, but he used that feat to bring attention to a political issue that was much bigger than all the awards and glamour that night. That issue was the mass murder and genocide of Cambodians and Vietnamese between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia at the reign of the Khmer Rouge communists- the very focus of his film “The Killing Fields.” As shown on the picture to the right, Ngor

played a Cambodian journalist trying to capture the devastating cruelty his country had fallen victim to. In real life he had actually worked as a medical physician in Cambodia- but witnessed bloody cruelty to his people and endured torture later as a labor worker. Not until the last year of the reign in 1979 did Ngor and his niece manage to escape from his camp in Cambodia through Thailand and eventually granted entry into the U.S. Winning over the Academy for his role sure brought the man instant celebrity hype, but so much more it gave him the platform he needed to tell the world about the devastating events that happened in his home country.

After bringing home the Oscar, he used his fame and money in following years to help others in need who had endured the same trauma he did in Cambodia. Ngor ultimately used his money to support two clinics and a school for children back home in his country. At the end of the day, I think this is what fame’s really all about. Not using it for your own sake, but using as a tool to promote good- a platform for charity. This is the true message he got to the American public, a message in dire need of constant recognition.