Haing S. Ngor

The police investigation of Dr. Haing S. Ngor's murder is depicted in Price of Duty: John Garcia (2018), the third episode of the true crime series "Price of Duty".

On April 14, 2004, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California overturned the 1998 conviction of the Oriental Lazy Boyz threesome who were jailed for the murder of Ngor. The court ruled that the original prosecutor had unfairly played on the jury sympathy in obtaining the conviction. However, on July 7, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated the 1998 convictions (life without parole for the gang member who pulled the trigger, 56 years to life for his accomplice and 26 years to life for his other accomplice) rejecting claims of misconduct on the part of the original prosecutor.

Haing S. Ngor was a native of Cambodia, and before the war was a physician (obstetrics) and medical officer in the Cambodian army. He became a captive of the Khmer Rouge and was imprisoned and tortured; in order to escape execution he denied being a doctor or having an education. He moved to the U. S. as a refugee in 1980, and though he had no formal acting experience, he was chosen to portray photographer Dith Pran in The Killing Fields (1984) and won an Academy Award. He went on to a modestly distinguished acting career, while continuing to work with human rights organizations in Cambodia on improving the conditions in resettlement camps, as well as attempting to bring the perpetrators of the Cambodian massacre to justice.

He was probably shot during the robbery for resisting giving up a cherished gold watch and chain bearing the picture of his wife, whom Khmer Rouge soldiers allowed to die in childbirth in 1975.

One of six Asian actors nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category. The others are Miyoshi Umeki who won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Sayonara (1957), Sessue Hayakawa who was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Mako nominated for The Sand Pebbles (1966), Ken Watanabe nominated for The Last Samurai (2003), and Rinko Kikuchi nominated for Babel (2006).

According to the book "Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary," Dr. Haing S. Ngor also has a living younger brother, Chan Sarun (also known as Ngor Hong Srun) who was born in 1951. Most of Ngor's Cambodian assets went to him after the murder. Sarun is very active in Cambodian political life and was even the Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at one point.

He was the first non-professional since Harold Russell in The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946) to win an Academy award.