HEATH LEDGER
G'day folks,
Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was an Australian actor and director.
After performing roles in several Australian television and film
productions during the 1990s, Ledger left for the United States in 1998
to develop his film career. Heath
Ledger was an Academy Award-winning, Australian actor best known for his roles
in Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight. Sadly, he died of an accidental
prescription drug overdose in 2008.
Synopsis
Heath
Ledger was born on April 4, 1979, in Perth, Australia. His breakout role was in
the film 10 Things I Hate About You with Julia Stiles. Ledger received
Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role in Brokeback Mountain.
In 2008, after completing filming on Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight,
Ledger died as the result of an accidental prescription drug overdose. He
received a posthumous Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as "The
Joker." Ledger had a daughter with actress Michelle Williams.
Early Life
Heath
Ledger was born on April 4, 1979, to mother Sally Ledger Bell, a french
teacher, and father Kim Ledger, a racecar driver and mining specialist. He and
his sister, Katherine, were reportedly named after two main characters in Emily Brontë's Wuthering
Heights. He also had two half sisters: Ashleigh Bell and Olivia Ledger,
both of whom were born into his parents' second marriage. But Ledger's closest
family relationship was with Katharine, whom he later credited for spurring his
acting career.
Early in
life, Ledger found a passion for playing chess. At the age of 10, he won
Western Australia's Junior Chess Championship. It was around this time that he
found an interest in becoming a stage performer, as he performed the lead role
in Guildford Grammar School's production of Peter Pan.
Unfortunately, while
Ledger was enjoying this busy life of a 10 year old his parents found
themselves growing apart. That same year, his parents would separate and
ultimately get divorced when Heath was 11. He found emotional release in
acting, choreography and dance and continued seeking out roles in his grammar
school. He also tried his hand on the big screen as an extra in the movie Clowning
Around, and later appeared in the TV series Ship To Shore.
Making it in Hollywood
At age
16, Ledger completed his early graduation exams, and he traveled cross-country
to Sydney to pursue an acting career with his long time friend Trevor DiCarlo.
He had worked various, small roles in television, and his feature film debut
came in 1997 in the emotional drama Blackrock. This led to a starring
role in pilot series Roar; a medival fantasy costarring Keri Russell and
backed by Financiers in the United States. The series was nominated for several
awards and exposed Ledger to American audiences and Fox executives. On the
urging of then-girlfriend Liza Zane (who also appeared in the series,) Heath
sought out an American agent and followed Zane back to Los Angeles at the age
of 19.
In 1999,
he was fully exposed to an international audience with his breakout role
opposite Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You. The film was a cult
success among younger audiences. Despite his young age and relative inexperience,
he was soon beating out the Hollywood elite for major roles in blockbuster
films. Mel Gibson cast him as his son Gabriel Martin in The Patriot
(2000.) His talent was tested in the lower budget Monster's Ball (2000)
opposite Billy Bob Thorton. And the highly experimental A Knight's Tale
(2001) displayed Ledger's abilities as a true leading man. His exposure in
these films, coupled with his growing reputation as a Hollywood playboy, led People
magazine to name Ledger one of it's "50 Most Beautiful People" in
2001.
'Brokeback Mountain'
He worked
steadily on many independent films unitl 2005 when he was once again thrust
into the spotlight with his contribution to one of the most controversial films
to date. Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the
New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his
performance in Brokeback Mountain. In the film, Ledger plays ranch hand
Ennis Del Mar, who has a life long love affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack
Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He also received a Golden Globe nomination
for Best Actor in a Drama, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for
his performance—making him, at age 26, the ninth youngest nominee for a Best
Actor Oscar.
It was on
the set of Brokeback Mountain that Ledger met actress Michelle Williams.
The two began a whirlwind relationship, and their daughter (Matilda Rose) was
born on October 28, 2005 in New York City. Matilda Rose's godparents are
Ledger's Brokeback co-star Jake Gyllenhaal and Williams' Dawson's Creek
(1998-03) castmate Busy Philipps. Problems with paparazzi in Australia prompted
Ledger to sell his residence in Bronte, New South Wales, and move to the United
States, where he shared an apartment with Williams in Brooklyn, from 2005 to
2007. In September 2007, Williams' father, Larry Williams, confirmed to
Sydney's Daily Telegraph that Ledger and Williams had ended their
relationship.
Tragic Death
On
January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper,
Teresa Solomon, and his masseuse, Diana Wolozin, at his apartment in the SoHo
neighborhood of Manhattan. According to police reports, Wolozin used Ledger's
cell phone to call Ledger's friend, Mary-Kate Olsen, for help.
Emergency
medical technicians arrived at Ledger's apartment at 3:33 p.m., but were unable
to revive him. At 3:36 p.m., Ledger was pronounced dead and his body was
removed from the apartment.
Soon
after Ledger's death reached the news, erroneous reports began to surface,
claiming that the apartment he was in belonged to Mary-Kate Olsen. Olsen did
not and had never owned the apartment, however. It was later reported by People
magazine that Diana Wolozin (who found Ledger unconscious) had called Olsen
before calling authorities because Olsen and Ledger had been casually dating in
the months before his death.
Ledger
had told The New York Times in November of 2007 that he was taking
Ambien, a prescription medication used for the short-term treatment of
insomnia. He discussed the difficulty that he was having with portraying The
Joker in Batman sequel The Dark Knight (2008), a character he described
as a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero
empathy."
"Last
week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the Times.
"I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still
going." It is believed that the young star's death was caused by an
overdose of the sleep aid, combined with various other prescription drugs found
in his system post-mortem. The coroner report ruled his death an accident.
Posthumous Works
Before
his unfortunate passing, Heath Ledger completed filming The Dark Knight,
and the blockbuster that was rumored to have been Heath Ledger's Oscar winning
performance opened in U.S. theaters on July 18, 2008. The film grossed more
than $400 million in 18 days.
At the
time of his death, Ledger was filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus (2009). Scenes that placed Ledger in a realistic world had
been completed in London. After his passing, Ledger's role was recast to have
new actors portray his "physically transformed versions" in a magical
realm, including Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. The film is set to
premier in 2009.
Ledger
was posthumously awarded a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
I Am
Heath Ledger, a
feature-length documentary celebrating his life using footage he had filmed
himself, was released in theaters and aired on Spike in May 2017.
Clancy's comment: Another young man who left us too early.
I'm ...
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