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Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-nominated Australian-born film actor who lived in New York City. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a movie career, appearing in nearly 20 films. He starred in both critical and box-office successes, including 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale, and Brokeback Mountain. For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger was nominated for a 2005 Oscar for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" and won awards from the British Academy and the Australian Film Institute, as well as two MTV Movie Awards. Despite a short-lived start on series television, actor Heath Ledger moved into features as a heartthrob in teen films, quickly developing into one of Hollywood’s most prominent and gifted talents, as well as a tabloid favorite for his very public relationships with actresses Naomi Watts and Michelle Williams. After a notable turn in his native Australia’s “Blackrock” (1997), Ledger went on to stardom by way of leading roles in “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999), "The Patriot" (2000) and “A Knight’s Tale” (2001). Though he languished a bit in little-seen features like “The Four Feathers” (2002) and “Ned Kelly” (2004), Ledger exploded into a bona fide star with his Oscar-nominated turn as a closeted homosexual ranch hand in Ang Lee’s acclaimed "Brokeback Mountain" (2005). Building off the enormity of his “Brokeback” success, Ledger landed the role of a lifetime, playing The Joker in “The Dark Knight” (2008) and setting the stage for becoming a huge international star. But unfortunately – and quite shockingly – tragedy struck in early 2008, when Ledger was found dead in his apartment of a possible drug overdose, ending one of the most promising careers of his generation. In addition to his work as an actor and as a producer and director of music videos, he also aspired to be a film director. He completed filming his role as the Joker in the forthcoming movie The Dark Knight, shortly before dying from an accidental prescription drug overdose at age 28. His last acting project was Terry Gilliam's unfinished film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Ledger 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. Ledger's father comes from a family known in Perth for their ownership of the Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust was named after his great-grandfather. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School, in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10. Ledger had an older sister, Kate. Their parents divorced when he was 11. Other siblings include two half-sisters, Ashleigh Bell (b. 1989), his mother's daughter with her second husband and his stepfather Roger Bell, and Olivia Ledger (b. 1997), his father's daughter with second wife and his stepmother Emma Brown. Ledger was an avid chess player, winning Western Australia's junior chess championship at the age of 10. As an adult, he often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park. Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was born on April 4, 1979 and raised in Perth, Australia by mother Emma, a French teacher, and father Kim, a mining engineer and amateur racecar driver. Because his parents were Wuthering Heights fans, they named their son Heathcliff and daughter Catherine after the star-crossed lovers in Emily Bronte’s classic tearjerker. Indeed, young Ledger seemed to have a natural gift for drama himself, with an early interest in acting resulting in a stage debut with Perth’s Globe Shakespeare Company when he was only 10 years old. Ledger’s budding thespian tendencies were no secret at Guildford’s Boys Grammar School, where he was a member of the school hockey team, but also choreographed and led a school dance troupe to victory in a national competition. As hard-working academically as he was on the stage and hockey rink, Ledger hit the books and passed his high school graduation exams at age 16 in order to move to Sydney in search of an acting career. Prior to 2002, Ledger had dated actresses Lisa Zane and Heather Graham. From August 2002 to April 2004, Ledger had a relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of Ned Kelly. Ledger met and began dating actress Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain, 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 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 Boerum Hill, 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. After his break up with Williams, in late 2007 and early 2008, the tabloid press and other public media linked Ledger romantically with supermodels Helena Christensen and Gemma Ward and with actress and former child star Mary-Kate Olsen. With his tall, masculine looks and dimpled charm, he quickly landed a role in the feature film “Blackrock” (1997), a gripping fictionalization of the rape and murder of a teenage girl in a surf community. Ledger’s auspicious film debut led to a recurring role as Australian TV’s first gay character, cyclist Snowy Bowles in the drama "Sweat," which was set at an elite training academy for young athletes. His career snowballed with a solid run of guest work on Australian TV series "Ship to Shore," "Bush Patrol," and "Home and Away” before he was tapped for American television as the star of "Roar" (Fox, 1997). In the medieval-set adventure, Ledger played a teenaged Celtic prince who becomes the leader of his people when Romans murder his family. With a job description that included bellowing a mighty roar before beating the baddies, in addition to dealing with his inner turmoil, Ledger proved an impressive recruit and was well loved by the series’ cult audience. In 1999, Ledger starred in the crime thriller "Two Hands" (1998) from Australian director Gregor Jordan and earned a Best Actor nomination from the AFI Film Festival, where both the film and director earned top awards. Despite the independent accolades, Ledger earned considerably more attention for the American teen comedy, "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999). In this modern retooling of "The Taming of the Shrew," he starred as a moody student with a reputed criminal past who is enlisted to woo Julia Stiles. A teen heartthrob was born and now moviegoers on both sides of the pond were smitten. At 16, Ledger sat for early graduation exams and left school to pursue an acting career. With his best friend, Trevor DiCarlo, Ledger made the cross-country drive to Sydney. He returned to Perth for the TV series Sweat (1996), in which he played a gay cyclist. In 1996, prior to his film debut in the 1997 Australian movie Blackrock, Ledger was involved in the short-lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama Roar. This was immediately followed by a part on Home and Away, one of Australia's most successful television shows. 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. From 2000 to 2005, he starred in The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale, The Four Feathers, 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. 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 which he plays Wyoming ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, who has a love affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He also received a nomination for Golden Globe Best Actor in a Drama and a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for this performance. At age 26, Ledger became one of the youngest performers ever nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In The New York Times review of the film, critic Stephen Holden writes: "Both Mr. Ledger and Mr. Gyllenhaal make this anguished love story physically palpable. Mr. Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean, sinewy character. It is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn." In a review in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers states: "Ledger's magnificent performance is an acting miracle. He seems to tear it from his insides. Ledger doesn't just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens; he knows how he breathes. To see him inhale the scent of a shirt hanging in Jack's closet is to take measure of the pain of love lost.", Also in 2005, Ledger portrayed a fictionalised version of Giacomo Casanova in Casanova, a romantic comedy which co-starred Sienna Miller. Not surprisingly, the newcomer was barraged with Hollywood offers to repeat his onscreen success in a multitude of cookie cutter teen romantic comedies, but Ledger waited out the deluge until he found a vehicle that would show audiences another side of his talent. That opportunity was realized when Ledger played Mel Gibson's son in the much-heralded "The Patriot" (2000), a Revolutionary War saga about a pacifist (Gibson) forced to choose sides after his soldier son is captured by the enemy. Following the flurry of magazine covers and articles, the in-demand actor starred as medieval swashbuckler in a film set to arena rock standards in "A Knight's Tale" (2001) – with the tagline “He Will Rock You” reportedly embarrassing the young actor, who worried about the pressures of such a promise. Determined to take another route than that predetermined by his rugged, blonde good looks, Ledger impressively held his own opposite Billy Bob Thorton as the anguished of a cold-hearted prison guard who kills himself in "Monster's Ball" (2001). He signed on opposite Kate Hudson to headline the Victorian military drama "Four Feathers" (2002), directed by Shekhar Kapur, but the film made nary a ripple at the box office. Commencing a high-profile and long-time romance with actress and fellow Aussie, Naomi Watts – ten years his senior – Ledger became a favorite subject of the paparazzi and entertainment media, particularly in the couple’s homeland. As his public profile rose, he sought to shore up his professional reputation with a portrayal of a renegade priest who runs afoul of an ancient and evil sect operating within the church in "The Order" (2003). Ledger again earned favor with AFI Festival critics for “Ned Kelly” (2004), playing a good man driven to striking back at a corrupt British colonial system in 19th century Australia, after serving a prison term on trumped-up charges. Despite AFI recognition and a cast that included Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts, “Ned Kelly” was released by Universal into less than 20 theaters. Ledger’s next appearance was in “Lords of Dogtown” (2005), a fictionalized rags-to-riches tale of the Southern California figures who revolutionized skateboarding and propelled themselves into wanton celebrity. Ledger was virtually unrecognizable as Skip Engblom, who owns a surf shop and forms the skaters into the celebrated Zephyr Skateboard Team. Exploring still new territory, the hungry up-and-comer teamed with Matt Damon to play fictionalized versions of the famed Bavarian fairy tale spinners "The Brothers Grimm" (2005), reimagined by director Terry Gilliam as a pair of curse-removing con artists who are suddenly tasked with solving a genuine magical mystery that ultimately inspires many of their famous stories. The unfortunate misfire was soon forgotten, however, in the face of his following project — director Ang Lee's adaptation of the E. Annie Proulx's story "Brokeback Mountain." In the finest performance of his short career, Ledger played Ennis Del Mar, a stoic, rough-around-the-edges ranch hand who unwittingly finds himself in a sexual relationship with a fellow cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal) while on a lengthy and remote sheep drive. Adding to his character’s torment, the couple continues their complex relationship for the next 20 years, despite both getting married – with Ennis marrying Alma (Michelle Williams) and starting a family. Ledger's quiet, haunting, convincingly tortured performance was such a revelation, he was honored with a slew of nominations, including Oscar and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor. By the time the film hit theaters, Watts and Ledger had broken up and he was dating his on-screen wife Williams, previously best known for her work on “Dawson’s Creek” (WB, 1998-2003). The two had a daughter, Matilda Rose, on Oct. 28, 2005, and were often photographed in the midst of a remarkably normal looking life in a Brooklyn neighborhood. In 2006, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2007, he was one of six actors to portray different sides of singer Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There. Before Brad Pitt accepted the lead after Ledger reportedly withdrew from the project, in December 2007, Ledger was to star, opposite Sean Penn in a supporting role, in Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick. Ledger’s final 2005 film, "Casanova," was director Lasse Hallstrom's fictionalized account of the legendary lothario. It was easily one of the most disappointing films of the year, despite lavish production values and game performances by Ledger and the all-star cast. He bounced back with “I’m Not There” (2007), playing the “egomaniac superstar” incarnation of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ unique character study of the iconic singer. Ledger and Williams got some unwelcome ink after their breakup that year, but Ledger rebounded with news that he appear as the legendary comic book villain, The Joker, opposite Christian Bale's Batman in "The Dark Knight" (2008); the second film in director Christopher Nolan's popular revival of the Caped Crusader's film franchise. But before the “Dark Knight” was released, tragedy struck on Jan. 22, 2008, when Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment. Authorities were called and arrived on scene, discovering no apparent foul play but numerous pills nearby and declared his body in "full cardiac arrest" upon their arrival. At the same time the actor's body was being prepared for burial in Perth, Australia, the Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York concluded in his report – based on the toxicology findings – that Ledger had suffered an "accidental overdose" by the combined effects of oxycodone (Oxycontin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), diazepam (Valium), temazepam (Restoril, i.e. sedative), alprazolam (Xanax), and doxylamine (i.e. sleep aid). Ledger plays the Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, which is to be released on July 18, 2008. The Dark Knight was in post-production at the time of Ledger's death. Nolan has praised Ledger's performance as "iconic". The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which Ledger had been cast in a major supporting role, was still in production at the time of his death. Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and made some music videos. In 2006 he debuted as a director with the music videos for the title track on Australian hip-hop artist N'fa's CD debut solo album Cause an Effect and for the single "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)". Later in 2006, Ledger started a new record label, Masses Music, with singer Ben Harper and also directed a music video for Harper's song "Morning Yearning". At a news conference at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a documentary film about the British singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. Ledger created and acted in a music video set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression "Black Eyed Dog"–a title "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression" (black dog); it was shown publicly only twice, first at the Bumbershoot Festival, in Seattle, Washington, held from September 1 to September 3, 2007; and secondly as part of "A Place To Be: A Celebration of Nick Drake", with its screening of Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake, "a series of short filmed homages to Nick Drake" (including Ledger's), sponsored by American Cinematheque, at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Hollywood, on October 5, 2007. After Ledger's death, his music video for "Black Eyed Dog" was shown on the internet and excerpted in news clips distributed via YouTube. He was also working with Scottish screenwriter and producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis; he was planning both to act in and to direct it, and it would have been his first feature film as a director. Ledger's relationship with the press in Australia was sometimes turbulent, and it led to his relocating to New York City. In 2004 he strongly denied press reports alleging that "he spat at journalists on the Sydney set of the movie Candy," or that one of his relatives had done so later, outside Ledger's Sydney home. On January 13, 2006, "Several members of the paparazzi retaliated ... squirting Ledger and Williams with water pistols on the red carpet at the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain." After his performance on stage at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards, when he had giggled in presenting Brokeback Mountain as a nominee for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the Los Angeles Times referred to his presentation as an "apparent gay spoof." Ledger called the Times later and explained that his levity resulted from stage fright, saying that he had been told that he would be presenting the award only minutes earlier; he stated: "I am so sorry and I apologise for my nervousness. I would be absolutely horrified if my stage fright was misinterpreted as a lack of respect for the film, the topic and for the amazing filmmakers." Ledger was quoted in January 2006 in Melbourne's Herald Sun as saying that he heard that West Virginia had banned Brokeback Mountain, which it had not; actually, a cinema in Utah had banned the film. He had also referred mistakenly to West Virginia's having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s, but state scholars disputed his statement, observing that, whereas lynchings did occur in Alabama as recently as 1981, according to "the director of state archives and history" quoted in The Charleston Gazette, "The last documented lynching in West Virginia took place in Lewisburg in 1931." Yet The Gazz qualifies its newspaper's report somewhat further in adding, "though you have to wonder what the Klan was up to in the decades after that." In a New York Times interview with Sarah Lyall published on November 4, 2007, Ledger 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." Prior to his return to New York from his last film assignment, in London, in January 2008, while he was apparently suffering from some kind of respiratory illness, he reportedly complained to his co-star Christopher Plummer that he was continuing to have difficulty sleeping and taking pills to help with that problem: "Confirming earlier reports that Ledger hadn't been feeling well on set, Plummer says, 'we all caught colds because we were shooting outside on horrible, damp nights. But Heath's went on and I don't think he dealt with it immediately with the antibiotics.… [sic] I think what he did have was the walking pneumonia.'" ... On top of that, 'He was saying all the time, "dammit, I can't sleep"… [sic] and he was taking all these pills [to help him] [sic].'" In talking with Interview magazine after his death, Ledger's former fiancée Michelle Williams "also confirmed reports the actor had experienced trouble sleeping. 'For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia,' she said. 'He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning always turning.' At about 2:45 PM on January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in SoHo, Manhattan. Emergency crews arrived soon after but were unable to revive him.. He was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m., and his body removed from the apartment, while crowds of onlookers began gathering outside throughout that night. After two weeks of intense media speculation about possible causes of his death, on 6 February 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York released its conclusions, based on an initial autopsy of January 23, 2008, and a subsequent complete toxicological analysis. The report concludes, in part, "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." It also states definitively: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications." The medications found in the toxicological analysis are commonly prescribed in the United States for insomnia, anxiety, depression, pain, and/or cold symptoms. The Medical Examiner's Office also announced that it would not be publicly disclosing the official estimated time of death. The official announcement of the cause of Ledger's death heightened concerns about general "abuse of prescription medications." Late in February 2008, a still-ongoing DEA investigation of medical professionals "cleared" two American medics, who practice in Los Angeles and Houston, of "any wrongdoing," determining that "the doctors in question had prescribed Ledger other medications–not the pills that killed him." On January 23, 2008, Ledger's parents and sister appeared outside his mother's house in Applecross, a riverside suburb of Perth, and read a short statement to the media expressing their grief and desire for privacy. Within the next few days, memorial tributes were communicated by family members, Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, Deputy Premier of Western Australia Eric Ripper, Warner Brothers (distributor of The Dark Knight, his final completed film), and thousands of Ledger's fans around the world. Numerous actors have made statements expressing their sorrow at Ledger's death, including Daniel Day-Lewis who dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award to Ledger, saying that he was inspired by Ledger's acting; Day-Lewis praised Ledger's performances in Monster's Ball and Brokeback Mountain, describing the latter as "unique, perfect." On February 1, 2008, Michelle Williams' first public statement on the death expressed her heartbreak and described her seeing Ledger's spirit surviving in their daughter. After private memorial ceremonies in Los Angeles, Ledger's family members returned with his body to Perth. On February 9, 2008, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penhros College. Following the memorial, Ledger's body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery; a funeral for ten members of his immediate family followed, with his ashes to be "scattered in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, next to two of his grandparents." Later that night, his family and friends gathered for a wake on Cottesloe Beach. A posthumous fictionalized account of "The Last Days of Heath Ledger", by Lisa Taddeo ("an associate editor at Golf Magazine and an aspiring fiction writer, [who] spent four days in restaurants and cafes and parks near where Mr. Ledger died"), has raised some controversy prior to its print publication in the April 2008 issue of Esquire. It covers Ledger's final four days, from January 19 through January 22, 2008, the day he died, whose entry is subtitled "The Final Curtain". According to Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia, "The risk of a piece like 'The Last Days of Heath Ledger' is that the work winds up in a literary no-man’s land. The biggest problem I see is you are sacrificing the biggest strengths from each of the genres. ... You are losing the veracity of journalism, and you are losing the imaginative license of fiction. You run the risk of ending up with something that is neither true nor interesting." After Heath Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his will and his daughter's access to his financial legacy, his father, Kim, said that he considered the financial well-being of his granddaughter Matilda Rose the Ledger family's "absolute priority" and her mother, Michelle Williams, "an integral part of our family," adding in his public "statement": "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be." Some relatives of Heath Ledger may be challenging the legal status of his will signed in 2003 prior to the birth of his daughter, which was filed in New York and divides half of his $60 million estate between his parents and half among his siblings; they claim that there is a second, unsigned will, which leaves most of that estate to Matilda Rose. Williams' father, Larry, has also joined the controversy about Ledger's will as it was filed in New York City soon after his death. On March 31, 2008, an "Exclusive" report published in Australia stated that "Heath Ledger's family believe the late actor may have fathered a secret love child" when he was 17 and that "If it is confirmed that Ledger is the girl's biological father, it could split his multi-million dollar estate between" Matilda Rose and this "secret love child." After Heath Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his will and his daughter's access to his financial legacy, his father, Kim, said that he considered the financial well-being of his granddaughter Matilda Rose the Ledger family's "absolute priority" and her mother, Michelle Williams, "an integral part of our family," adding in his public "statement": "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be." Some relatives of Heath Ledger may be challenging the legal status of his will signed in 2003 prior to the birth of his daughter, which was filed in New York and divides half of his $60 million estate between his parents and half among his siblings; they claim that there is a second, unsigned will, which leaves most of that estate to Matilda Rose. Williams' father, Larry, has also joined the controversy about Ledger's will as it was filed in New York City soon after his death. On March 31, 2008, an "Exclusive" report published in Australia stated that "Heath Ledger's family believe the late actor may have fathered a secret love child" when he was 17 and that "If it is confirmed that Ledger is the girl's biological father, it could split his multi-million dollar estate between" Matilda Rose and this "secret love child." |
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