Sydney Schanberg, American journalist, Died at 82

  Writer

Sydney Hillel Schanberg was born on January 17, 1934, and died on July 9, 2016.

He was an American journalist.

Sydney was best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia.

Sydney Hillel Schanberg has been the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the coveted Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.

Schanberg was played by Sam Waterston in the 1984,’The Killing Fields film based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in Cambodia.

He won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his Cambodia coverage.

Reportedly, The citation reads; “For his coverage of the Communist takeover in Cambodia, carried out at great risk when he elected to stay at his post after the fall of Phnom Penh.

In 1980, he published his book, The Death and Life of Dith Pran was about the struggle for survival of his colleague Dith Pran in the Khmer Rouge regime.

The book motivated the 1984 film The Killing Fields, in which Schanberg was played by Sam Waterston.

On July 1, 2010, the issue of American Conservative, Schanberg wrote an article about his struggle to advance his position that the United States government left behind hundreds of POWs being held by North Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War.

He died after suffering a heart attack in the previous week.

Sydney Schanberg passed away at 82 years old.