Photojournalist Dith Pran, whose harrowing survival of genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge was dramatized in the film "The Killing Fields," died on Sunday at the age of 65.
He died of pancreatic cancer at a New Brunswick, New Jersey, hospital, The New York Times said on its Web site.
Dith, who used his fame to draw attention to his country's plight, spent the last weeks of his life in the hospital surrounded by family and friends. Among them was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg, who worked with him for The Times during the Cambodian civil war and recalled him as a dogged journalist who was "always doing good deeds for people in the Buddhist tradition."
Best known for his depiction in the 1984 film "The Killing Fields," Dith worked in Cambodia as a translator and journalist assisting Schanberg, who credits Dith with saving his life when they were arrested by the Khmer Rouge. Read more...

Comments (1)
I met Dith Pran years ago w... (Below threshold)1. Posted by waldo | March 31, 2008 10:23 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I met Dith Pran years ago when I was a freelance photographer in New York and he was a staff photog for the NY Times. We were on many assignments together (for different news organizations). He was a true gentleman and he will be missed.
1. Posted by waldo | March 31, 2008 10:23 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on March 31, 2008 10:23