Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe-, and SAG Award-nominated Australian film and television actor. 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 also was nominated and won "Best Actor" awards for that role from BAFTA and the Australian Film Institute and the New York Film Critics Circle, respectively, as well as won an MTV Movie Award with Jake Gyllenhaal for their "best kiss" in the film.He completed filming his role as the Joker in the forthcoming movie The Dark Knight, shortly before dying, on January 22, 2008, from an accidental prescription drug overdose at age 28. His final film performance, uncompleted at the time of his death, is the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam's forthcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Posthumously, on February 23, 2008, he shared the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the cast and crew of the film I'm Not There, in which he portrayed a character named "Robbie Clark", based on a stage in the life of Bob Dylan.
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.
Family and personal life
Heath Ledger was born on April 4, 1979, 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, whose family established and owned the well-known Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is 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. His parents separated when he was 10 and divorced when he was 11. Ledger's older sister, Kate, an actress and later a publicist, with whom he was very close, inspired his acting on stage, and his love of Gene Kelly inspired his successful choreography leading to Guildford Grammar's 60-member team's "first all-boy victory" at the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. Heath's and Kate's 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. Allan Scott's film adaptation of the chess-related 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis, which at the time of his death he was planning both to perform in and to direct, would have been Ledger's first feature film as a director.
Among his most-notable romantic relationships, Ledger dated actress Heather Graham, from October 2000 to June 2001. He had a serious longterm relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of Ned Kelly. He 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 former child star, actress Mary-Kate Olsen.
Effects of work on health: sleep disturbances
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.' "
Death
At about 2:45 PM on January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Emergency crews arrived soon after but were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead at 3:36 PM, 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 attending 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. After that service, Ledger's body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, followed by a private service attended only by "10 closest family members", 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.
Controversy over will
After Heath Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his will, filed in New York City on February 28, 2008, 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."
Forthcoming films
Ledger's death has affected the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and also both the production and marketing of Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and both directors intend their films to celebrate and pay tribute to Ledger's work in them. Although Gilliam temporarily suspended production on the latter film, he expressed determination to "salvage" it, perhaps using computer-generated imagery (CGI), and plans to dedicate it to the memory of Heath Ledger. In February 2008 actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell signed on to take over Ledger's role, becoming multiple incarnations of his character, Tony, transformed in the "magical" world of the film, in part as a "tribute" to Ledger.
Comments