Dith Pran, the New York Times photojournalist whose gruesome ordeal in Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie, has died of pancreatic cancer, aged 65, in the US. When Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Dith helped save the life of his NY Times colleague Sydney Schanberg and several other foreign correspondents.
But Dith was taken prisoner and survived the genocide through a mixture of guile, luck and determination. His remarkable story of survival until he escaped in 1979 was told by Schanberg in newspaper articles, a book and then in a film, The Killing Fields, directed by Roland Joffé.
Dith was portrayed by Haing Ngor, a doctor turned actor, who had also survived the Cambodian holocaust. He was shot to death in 1996 in Los Angeles by the teenage member of a gang. "It seems like I lost one hand," Dith said of his friend's death.
As a Times photographer in New York, Dith was noted for his imaginative pictures of city scenes and news events. (Via New York Times) See also a video of Dith here.
