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Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4 1979–January 22 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including Ten Things I Hate about You, The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of the Joker in the forthcoming The Dark Knight.
Early life and familyLedger was born in Perth, Western Australia, the son of Sally Ledger Bell (née Ramshaw), a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a race car driver and mining engineer.[1] Ledger's mother is descended from the Clan Campbell of Scotland and his father comes from a family known in Perth for their ownership of the Ledger Engineering Foundry.[2] He and his sister Kate were named after the two main characters in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust was named after his great-grandfather.[3] Ledger attended Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10.[3] CareerEarly career
 In 1996, prior to his film debut in the 1997 Australian movie Blackrock, Heath Ledger was involved in the short lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama Roar. In 1999, Ledger starred in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and also had the lead role in the acclaimed Australian movie Two Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan. 2000-presentHe has starred in The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale, Ned Kelly, The Order, and The Brothers Grimm. In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award for the Male Star of Tomorrow based on his performance in The Patriot, and worldwide release of A Knight's Tale. In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ's Men of the Year for acting. In 2005, Ledger received a "Best Actor in a Drama" Golden Globe nomination for his acclaimed performance in Brokeback Mountain, in which he plays Wyoming ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, who has a love affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. In the New York Times review of the film, critic Stephen Holden wrote:
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards for Brokeback Mountain from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. In the same year, Ledger played a fictionalized version of Giacomo Casanova in Casanova. The film, a romantic comedy which co-starred Sienna Miller, drew mixed reviews from critics and failed to find a significant audience among general moviegoers, though it fared better on DVD. In 2006, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[7] In 2007, he was one of six actors to portray different sides of singer Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There. On July 21, 2006, Ledger was officially confirmed to play iconic comic book villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, opposite fellow I'm Not There star Christian Bale. The film is due in 2008.[8] In 2006, Ledger directed three music videos: "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)" for Australian hip-hop artist N'fa, as well as "Morning Yearning" for Ben Harper. MusicLedger started a record company with singer Ben Harper. His first step in the music business was directing Harper's music video for "Morning Yearning". He has directed and produced Australian artist N'Fa's work, including his video "Seduction is Evil". Public imagePress receptionLedger has a turbulent relationship with paparazzi photographers. It is alleged that he spat at and assaulted a photographer in Sydney in 2004, while a relative also is alleged to have spat on a photographer in 2005. Ledger strongly denies the accusation.[9] On January 13, 2006, several photographers retaliated, squirting Ledger with water pistols as he walked the red carpet for the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain. Ledger has more recently been subject to criticism in the press following his performance on stage at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Ledger was seen giggling when presenting Brokeback Mountain as a nominee for Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The Los Angeles Times described his behaviour as "some kind of gay spoof."[9] Ledger later called the Times to explain that his actions were the result of stage fright, saying that he was only told he would be presenting the award minutes beforehand. "I am so sorry and I apologise for my nervousness," Ledger told the newspaper.[10] Ledger also came under fire after he was quoted in January 2006 in Australia's Herald Sun as saying that West Virginia had banned Brokeback Mountain (which it had not). He also referred to the state as having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s. These statements have been roundly disputed by archivists and historians, who have found that the last extra-legal public hanging in West Virginia occurred in 1931.[11] Personal lifeLedger had a relationship with Naomi Watts, whom he met in 2002 during the filming of Ned Kelly. They started dating in August 2002. The couple ended their relationship in April 2004. Previously, he had dated actresses Lisa Zane and Heather Graham. Ledger was engaged to actress Michelle Williams, whom he met on the set of Brokeback Mountain.[12][13] They have a daughter, Matilda Rose, who was born on October 28, 2005. The child's godparents are Ledger's Brokeback costar Jake Gyllenhaal and Williams' Dawson's Creek castmate Busy Phillips. Ledger and his family divided their time between Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Sydney.[14] Ledger sold his Australian residence in Bronte, New South Wales, for A$7 million.[15][16] In August 2007, Us Weekly reported that Ledger and Williams ended their relationship because of their busy schedule. Neither Ledger nor Williams has confirmed the rumor at the time of this writing.[17] On September 4, 2007, Williams' father, Larry, confirmed to Sydney Daily Telegraph that Ledger & Williams have indeed split.[18] In early 2008 Ledger was reported to be seeing Gemma Ward after media articles linked the two together at end of 2007 holiday celebrations.[19] DeathIn the middle of the afternoon of January 22, 2008, Ledger was found dead in his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.[20] That night "Hundreds of fans, curiosity seekers and news crews gathered" in front of the building as the news of his unexpected death spread "at the speed of technology" and stimulated widespread public reaction and interest in learning its circumstances.[21][22][23] An initial autopsy on January 23, 2008 proved "inconclusive" at determining the cause or causes of Ledger's death; the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York stated that it would take about 10 days to complete the investigation, including toxicology findings.[24][25] On February 6, 2008, medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove announced: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications" and that Ledger "died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine"–painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication that he had been prescribed. [26][27][28][28] Although there has been much public controversy about the timing of the call to 9-1-1 and whether its timing would have made any difference,[23] the New York Chief Medical Examiner's Office announced earlier that it would not be disclosing publicly "the official estimated time of death."[29][30] Following the announcement of these findings, Ledger's family released a second public statement, reiterating their grief and their request for privacy.[28][31] In a November 2007 New York Times interview with Sarah Lyall, Ledger had stated that his recently-completed roles in The Dark Knight and I'm Not There had taken a toll on his ability to sleep: "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. ... I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." At that time, he told Lyall that he had taken two Ambien pills, after taking just one had not sufficed, and those left him in "a stupor only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing."[32] In late January 2008, after Ledger died, his co-star Christopher Plummer commented that, in December 2007, during filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in London, prior to returning home, Ledger, who was not feeling well, was still suffering from insomnia and taking pills to help him sleep.[33][34] Pertaining to Plummer's description of colds that he himself, Ledger, and other cast members experienced then, according to Sewell Chan's account of the toxicology findings in The New York Times, "One nonprescription drug ... found in Mr. Ledger’s system: doxylamine ... is found in common nighttime sleep aids. It is an antihistamine that causes drowsiness as a side effect and is used in the short-term treatment of insomnia. (It is also used, in combination with decongestants, to relieve cough and cold symptoms.)"[28] As Chan also reports, "Dr. Andrew J. Kolodny, the vice chairman of psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center and an authority on deaths by accidental overdose, said that combining anti-anxiety medications with painkillers can be particularly lethal. Both types of medications can lead to addiction, he said, making it more challenging for someone using the two types of drugs to avoid combining them."[28] The propriety of the combined prescriptions given to Ledger has also raised questions by medical professionals,[28] prompting a U.S. federal investigation, according to TV Guide.[35]  Memorial tributesOn January 23, 2008 (Western Australian time), Ledger's parents and sister appeared outside his mother's house in Applecross, a riverside Perth suburb, and read a short statement to the media expressing the family's grief and its desire for privacy during its period of mourning.[31] Two days later, family members also posted memorial tributes to Ledger,[36] along with the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd,[37] Warner Bros. (distributor of The Dark Knight, his final completed film),[38] and thousands of Ledger's fans around the world.[39] On February 1 2008, Michelle Williams' first public statement regarding her reaction to Ledger's death expressed her own heartbreak and described her perspective on Ledger's spirit surviving in their daughter.[40][41] After private memorial ceremonies in Los Angeles, including further tributes by his colleagues and friends in Hollywood, Heath Ledger's immediate family returned home, to Perth, Western Australia, with his body, for "a private funeral" and burial "in the Ledger family plot, near his grandparents, at Perth's Karrakatta Cemetery."[42][43][29] Consequences on forthcoming filmsLedger's death affects both the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight and production for Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.[44][45][46] Although Gilliam has suspended production on the latter film,[45] he has expressed determination to "salvage" it, perhaps using Computer-generated imagery (CGI), and plans to dedicate it to the memory of Heath Ledger.[33][34] FilmographyFilm
Television
Awards and nominations
References
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