The Most Famous
ACTORS from Cambodia
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Cambodian Actors of all time. This list of famous Cambodian Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Haing S. Ngor (1940 - 1996)
With an HPI of 54.31, Haing S. Ngor is the most famous Cambodian Actor. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages on wikipedia.
Haing Somnang Ngor (Khmer: ហាំង សំណាង ង៉ោ; Chinese: 吳漢潤; pinyin: Wú Hànrùn; March 22, 1940 – February 25, 1996) was a Cambodian-born American actor, gynecologist, and obstetrician. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his debut performance in the film The Killing Fields (1984), in which he portrayed Cambodian journalist and refugee Dith Pran.Ngor is one of two actors of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the other being Ke Huy Quan in 2023. 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 Hakka Chinese descent. Ngor and Harold Russell are the only two non-professional actors to win an Academy Award in an acting category.Ngor continued acting for the rest of his life, most notably in My Life (1993), portraying spiritual healer Mr. Ho opposite Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. He was murdered in a robbery outside his home in Los Angeles in 1996.
2. François Chau (1959 - )
With an HPI of 42.78, François Chau is the 2nd most famous Cambodian Actor. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
François Chau (born October 26, 1959) is a Cambodian and American actor. He is known for his roles as Dr. Pierre Chang in ABC's Lost, Quick Kick on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Dr. Chang in the film 21 & Over, Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, and in 2015–2018, as industrialist Jules-Pierre Mao, a recurring character in Amazon's The Expanse.
Pantheon has 2 people classified as actors born between 1940 and 1959. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living actors include François Chau. The most famous deceased actors include Haing S. Ngor.
