Former king and leader of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk was crowned in 1941. He further consolidated his power in the 1950s before he was toppled by a US-backed coup in 1970 and was exiled to Beijing. He later returned and supported the Khmer Rouge but was eventually put under house arrest by the communist regime. Sihanouk regained the throne in 1993. In 2004, he abdicated due to illness and left the throne to his son. On October 15, 2012, Sihanouk died of a heart attack at age 89 in Beijing.