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Heath Ledger(1979-2008)

  • Actor
  • Director
  • Editor
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000104
Heath Ledger at an event for Candy (2006)
We take a look back at the various roles Heath Ledger played throughout his acting career.
Play clip1:39
Heath Ledger | Career Retrospective
62 Videos
99+ Photos
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Ned Kelly (2003), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Casanova (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally (Ramshaw), a teacher of French, and Kim Ledger, a mining engineer who also raced cars. His ancestry was Scottish, English, Irish, and Sephardi Jewish. As the story goes, in junior high school it was compulsory to take one of two electives, either cooking or drama. As Heath could not see himself in a cooking class he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, however the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent. When he was seventeen he and a friend decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams were made or, at least, where actors could possibly get their big break. Upon arriving in Sydney with a purported sixty-nine cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break.

His first real acting job came in a low-budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive cliché; an adolescent angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He only had a very small role in the film. After that small role Heath auditioned for a role in a T.V. show called Sweat (1996) about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He was offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, forcing him to look for other roles. He was in Home and Away (1988) for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws (1997), a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this offered him a small paycheck but did nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands (1999). He went to the U.S. trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in Roar (1997) opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga.

Then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands (1999), which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands (1999) was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a young hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot (2000).

What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly (2003) was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain (2005). For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in in the film, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and Best International Actor from the Australian Film Institute, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills near-by. It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included pain-killers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. His death occurred during editing of The Dark Knight (2008) and in the midst of filming his last role as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).

Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There (2007), which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.

A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his performance as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight (2008). His untimely death cast a somber shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $185 million Batman production. Ledger received more than thirty posthumous accolades for his critically acclaimed performance as the Joker, the psychopathic clown prince of crime, in the film, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards (for which he is the second actor to win an acting award posthumously after Peter Finch who won an Oscar for Network (Best Actor 1977)), the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
BornApril 4, 1979
DiedJanuary 22, 2008(28)
BornApril 4, 1979
DiedJanuary 22, 2008(28)
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000104
  • Won 1 Oscar

Photos543

Heath Ledger in Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Heath Ledger in Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsch in Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and David Krumholtz in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Heath Ledger and Helen McCrory in Casanova (2005)
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Heath Ledger and Cayla Wolever in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Linda Cardellini and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Heath Ledger, Roberta Maxwell, and Peter McRobbie in Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Known for

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Brokeback Mountain
7.7
  • Ennis Del Mar
  • 2005
Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, and Chin Han in The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight
9.0
  • Joker
  • 2008
Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale (2001)
A Knight's Tale
6.9
  • William Thatcher
  • 2001
Andrew Keegan, Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Gabrielle Union, Susan May Pratt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Krumholtz, and Larisa Oleynik in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
10 Things I Hate About You
7.3
  • Patrick Verona
  • 1999

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor

  • Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield, and Lily Cole in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  • Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, and Chin Han in The Dark Knight (2008)
    The Dark Knight
  • I'm Not There (2007)
    I'm Not There
  • Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish in Candy (2006)
    Candy
  • Heath Ledger in Casanova (2005)
    Casanova
  • Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
    Brokeback Mountain
  • Matt Damon, Monica Bellucci, and Heath Ledger in The Brothers Grimm (2005)
    The Brothers Grimm
  • Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch, and John Robinson in Lords of Dogtown (2005)
    Lords of Dogtown
  • Heath Ledger in The Order (2003)
    The Order
  • Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom in Ned Kelly (2003)
    Ned Kelly
  • Kate Hudson and Heath Ledger in The Four Feathers (2002)
    The Four Feathers
  • Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001)
    Monster's Ball
  • Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale (2001)
    A Knight's Tale
  • The Patriot (2000)
    The Patriot
  • Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne in Two Hands (1999)
    Two Hands

Director

  • N'fa: Cause an Effect (2009)
    N'fa: Cause an Effect
  • Modest Mouse: King Rat (2009)
    Modest Mouse: King Rat
  • Grace Woodroofe: Quicksand
  • Nick Drake in Nick Drake: Black Eyed Dog (2007)
    Nick Drake: Black Eyed Dog
  • Ben Harper: Morning Yearning (2006)
    Ben Harper: Morning Yearning
  • N'fa: Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)

Editor

  • Nick Drake in Nick Drake: Black Eyed Dog (2007)
    Nick Drake: Black Eyed Dog

Videos62

Heath Ledger | Career Retrospective
Clip 1:39
Heath Ledger | Career Retrospective
Is the New 'Joker' Most Like Jared, Heath, or Jack?
Clip 4:46
Is the New 'Joker' Most Like Jared, Heath, or Jack?
What We Know About 'Joker' ... So Far
Clip 2:39
What We Know About 'Joker' ... So Far
'The Batman': How Will Director Matt Reeves Reboot the Caped Crusader?
Clip 5:10
'The Batman': How Will Director Matt Reeves Reboot the Caped Crusader?
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
Clip 1:16
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
Clip 0:38
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
Clip 0:47
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
Clip 0:54
10 Things I Hate About You: 10th Anniversary Edition
Casanova
Clip 0:59
Casanova
Casanova
Clip 0:39
Casanova
Casanova
Clip 1:36
Casanova
Casanova
Clip 0:47
Casanova

Personal details

Edit
    • April 4, 1979
    • Perth, Western Australia, Australia
    • January 22, 2008
    • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(accidental overdose)
    • Matilda Ledger
    • Sally Bell
    • Kate Ledger(Sibling)
  • Was interviewed in "Talking Movies" (2006).
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Biographical Movie
    • 3 Print Biographies
    • 1 Portrayal
    • 12 Interviews
    • 161 Articles
    • 6 Pictorials
    • 13 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    In an interview shortly before his death, he stated that his favorite role so far in his career had been his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).
  • Quotes
    I only do this because Im having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away. I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again.... I don't want to do this for the rest of my life....I don't want to spend the rest of my youth doing this in this industry. There's so much I want to discover. (Vanity Fair, August 2000)
    • Deep husky voice
    • Ned Kelly
      (2003)
      $50,000

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