Ngor is the only actor of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor . He survived three terms in Cambodian prison camps , using his medical knowledge to keep himself alive by eating beetles , termites , and scorpions ; he eventually crawled between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese lines to safety in a Red Cross refugee camp . His mother was Khmer and his father was of Chinese Teochew descent . Ngor and Harold Russell are the only two non-professional actors to win an Academy Award in an acting category
Cambodian prison camps
Cambodian genocide
Haing S. Ngor