Dith Pran

You might not recognize the name, but you may remember the movie - The Killing Fields. I saw this movie in the movie theaters when it first came out in 1984. It was a surprisingly good film about the Vietnam War with a totally different take.

Dith Pran was born September 27, 1942 in Cambodia. In 1975, Pran and New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg were in Cambodia covering the fall of the capital city Phnom Penh and its eventual takeover by communist forces known as the Khmer Rouge. The foreign reporters were allowed to leave, but Pran was left behind and exiled to what he called “the killing fields” - forced labor camps. He survived four years in Cambodia during the time the Khmer Rouge murdered 2 million of the countries 7 million inhabitants. Pran escaped to Thailand in 1979 and made his way to the United States for a tearful reunion with his family (who had left in 1975) and Schanberg.

Schanberg went on to write the story which eventually was made in the movie. The movie starred Sam Waterson as Schanberg and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee, as Pran. The film one three academy awards including best supporting actor for Ngor.

Pran was hired as a photojournalist by the New York Times and became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He also founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project. The organization is dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Pran died of pancreatic cancer on March 30, 2008 in a New Jersey hospital. He was 65 years old.