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In Remembrance: Heath Ledger
Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was born on April 4, 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher. He found his way into acting at age 10, earning roles in children’s television after starring as Peter Pan at a local theater company. A young Ledger tried acting at his junior high school but his pursuits were clouded with rejection. Dreams of breaking into the spotlight fueled his desire to head off to Sydney for bigger, more challenging roles.
Ledger arrived in Sydney with cents in his pocket and a good sense for acting and found a comfortable place in TV soaps. He later auditioned for a role on a TV show about young Olympic hopefuls and accepted the challenge of playing a gay cyclist. His film career began with a small role in 1997’s Paws. However, film work was scarce and Ledger left for America to pursue greater opportunities. Ironically, he first found work starring in Two Hands (1999), a crime thriller helmed by Australian director Gregor Jordan. He quickly caught the attention of Hollywood and starred in the refreshing teen flick, 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), loosely based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Numerous offers began pouring in asking Ledger to portray the same type of hunky, ‘rebel with a cause’ teen film character, but he rejected them for stronger roles.
With fellow Aussie Mel Gibson, Ledger starred in the Revolutionary War drama The Patriot in 2000 and he grabbed the lead in the fun popcorn action movie A Knight’s Tale (2001). Ledger could later be seen in a gritty supporting role as Billy Bob Thornton’s suicidal son in Monster’s Ball and he played the romantic hero in Paramount’s 2002 reworking of the classic film The Four Feathers.
If there is a measurable turning point in Ledger’s career, it can be traced to 2005. That year, he portrayed Skip Engblom with a cool roughness in Lords of Dogtown, a big-screen adaptation of the cult classic documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001), starred opposite Matt Damon in Terry Gilliam’s The Brother’s Grimm, and played the lead in Casanova with an Errol Flynn-like spirit. However, it was his repressed, yet emotional turn as gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain that earned him countless accolades and garnered Golden Globe, Oscar and BAFTA nominations. E Annie Proulx, who wrote the story upon which the movie was based, lauded Ledger’s performance, saying "He was so visceral. He understood more about the character than I did."
Ledger’s career looked very promising and more defining roles came his way. His understated performance as a bohemian poet in Candy (2006) and his unforgettable portrayal of Robbie Clark in 2007’s Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There drew further praise from both audiences and critics.
His intensity and determination led him to a rare starring role in what is heavily considered to be the best blockbuster bet of this summer, playing Batman’s nemesis, The Joker in The Dark Knight. Instead of mimicking Jack Nicholson’s panache and comedic delivery in 1989’s Batman, Ledger chose to redefine the character, exposing the more sociopathic and psychotic tendencies buried deep within The Joker. Early teasers show Ledger in a dark and frightening manner, a clear departure from Nicholson’s style.
This month, Ledger had been working on his latest movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a fantasy reuniting him with director Gilliam, which was due to be released next year.
-John Gibbon |
Heath Ledger, the actor nominated for an Academy Award for his
moving performance as a homosexual cowboy in 2005’s Brokeback
Mountain, passed away Tuesday, January 22, 2008 in Manhattan,
New York. He was 28.