Post by hodaharb on Mar 2, 2008 12:43:38 GMT -5
[glow=silver,2,300]Heath Ledger[/glow]
[glow=silver,2,300]Heath Andrew Ledger
(April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008)[/glow] was an Academy 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 twenty 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.
In addition to his work as an actor and also as producer of music videos, Ledger aspired to be a film director. He had completed filming on the role of 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Family & Personal Life[/glow]
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 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. 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 was an avid chess player, winning a state junior chess championship at age ten, and as an adult often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park.
Ledger had an older sister, Kate. Their parents divorced when he was eleven. 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.
Prior to 2002, Ledger had dated actresses Lisa Zane and Heather Graham for short periods of time. 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, beginning in 2005.
In September, 2007, Williams' father, Larry Williams, confirmed to Sydney's Daily Telegraph that Ledger and Williams had ended their relationship. Subsequently, Ledger was reportedly "seeing" or "dating" supermodels Helena Christensen and Gemma Ward and former child-star Mary-Kate Olsen.
[glow=silver,2,300]Career[/glow]
[glow=silver,2,300]1990s[/glow]
At sixteen, 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]2000s[/glow]
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. In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ's Men of the Year for acting.
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle 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. 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."
Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.Also in 2005, Ledger portrayed a fictionalised 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.
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.
Ledger plays iconic comic book villain the Joker in The Dark Knight, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins to be released on July 18, 2008. The Dark Knight was in post-production at the time of Ledger's death; it includes his work as completed, though its marketing campaign, which, prior to his death, focused on his character the Joker, may still be adjusted prior to its summer 2008 release.
The film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he had been cast in a major supporting role, was in production at the time of his death.
[glow=silver,2,300]Directorial Work[/glow]
Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had started exploring this avenue by making some music videos, as well as a short film. He started a record company with singer Ben Harper; as part of his involvement he directed a music video in 2006 for Harper's song "Morning Yearning".[citations needed] He also directed two video clips for Australian hip-hop artist N'fa– "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)".
In 2007, at a news conference at the Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a film about the British troubadour Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. As a first step towards this project, he created and appeared in a short film set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression, "Black Eyed Dog", which was "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression." Ledger's film is included in an anthology of short films about Drake, Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake, which received its world premiere at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Los Angeles, on October 5, 2007.
He was also working with Scottish writer/producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis, which would have been his first feature film as a director.
[glow=silver,2,300]Press Controversies[/glow]
Ledger had a turbulent relationship with paparazzi photographers but strongly denied allegations that he spat at and assaulted a photographer in Sydney in 2004. On January 13, 2006, several photographers retaliated for the alleged incident, squirting Ledger and Michelle Williams with water pistols as they walked the red carpet for the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain.
Ledger was also 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." 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.
Ledger came under fire after he 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. (A cinema in Utah had banned the film). Ledger had also referred to West Virginia as having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s, but West Virginian scholars disputed 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."
[glow=silver,2,300]Death[/glow]
At about 2:45 PM on January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious at his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in SoHo, Manhattan. Emergency crews arrived soon after but were unable to revive him.
After an initial autopsy on January 23, 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York announced its conclusions based on the toxicology analysis on February 6, 2008: "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. ... We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications," prescribed commonly for treatment and alleviation of insomnia, anxiety, depression, pain, cold symptoms, and related ailments. The Medical Examiner's Office announced that it would not be publicly disclosing the official estimated time of death. After two weeks of speculation, the official announcement of the cause of his death heightened concerns about general "abuse of prescription medications."
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." Prior to his return to New York from his last film assignment, in London, in January 2008, he was apparently suffering from some kind of respiratory illness.
[glow=silver,2,300]Memorial Tributes[/glow]
On January 23, 2008, 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 their grief and desire for privacy. Two days later, memorial tributes were posted by family members, Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, 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 saying Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain was "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, Western Australia. 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Forthcoming Films[/glow]
Ledger's death affects not only the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight but also production for Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Filmography
[/glow]
1992
[li]Clowning Around.
1997
[/li][li]Paws.
[/li][li]Blackrock.
1999
[/li][li]Two Hands.
[/li][li]10 Things I Hate About You.
2000
[/li][li]The Patriot.
[/li][li]Monster's Ball.
2001
[/li][li]A Knight's Tale.
2002
[/li][li]The Four Feathers.
2003
[/li][li]The Order.
[/li][li]Ned Kelly.
[/li][li]Casanova.
2005
[/li][li]Brokeback Mountain.
[/li][li]The Brothers Grimm.
[/li][li]Lords of Dogtown.
2006
[/li][li]Candy.
2007
[/li][li]I'm Not There.
[/li][li]Black Eyed Dog.
2008
[/li][li]The Dark Knight.
2009
[/li][li]The Imaginarium of Doctor - production suspended due to Ledger's death.
[/li][li]Parnassus - production suspended due to Ledger's death.
Television
1993
[/li][li]Ship to Shore.
1996
[/li][li]Sweat.
1997
[/li][li]Home and Away.
[/li][li]Roar.
[/li][/ul][/color]
www.mtv.com/movies/photos/o/oscars06/eye_candy/heath1.jpg
[/img]
[glow=silver,2,300]Awards & Nominations[/glow]
[li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Australian Film Institute Awards:
[/li][li]1999 - Best Lead Actor, Two Hands (Nominated).
[/li][li]2003 - Best Lead Actor, Ned Kelly (Nominated).
[/li][li]2006 - Best Lead Actor, Candy (Nominated).
BAFTA:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Golden Globe Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Independent Spirit Awards:
[/li][li]2008 - Robert Altman Award, I'm Not There. (Won) *shared w/ cast and crew.
[/li][li]2006 - Best Male Lead, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
MTV Movie Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Kiss, Brokeback Mountain (Won) *shared w/ Jake Gyllenhaal.
[/li][li]2002 - Best Kiss, A Knight's Tale (Nominated) *shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon.
[/li][li]2002 - Best Musical Sequence A Knight's Tale (Nominated) *shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon.
[/li][li]2000 - Best Musical Sequence 10 Things I Hate About You (Nominated).
Screen Actors Guild Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
[/li][li]2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
[/li][/ul][/color]
[glow=silver,2,300]Heath Andrew Ledger
(April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008)[/glow] was an Academy 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 twenty 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.
In addition to his work as an actor and also as producer of music videos, Ledger aspired to be a film director. He had completed filming on the role of 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Family & Personal Life[/glow]
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 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. 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 was an avid chess player, winning a state junior chess championship at age ten, and as an adult often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park.
Ledger had an older sister, Kate. Their parents divorced when he was eleven. 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.
Prior to 2002, Ledger had dated actresses Lisa Zane and Heather Graham for short periods of time. 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, beginning in 2005.
In September, 2007, Williams' father, Larry Williams, confirmed to Sydney's Daily Telegraph that Ledger and Williams had ended their relationship. Subsequently, Ledger was reportedly "seeing" or "dating" supermodels Helena Christensen and Gemma Ward and former child-star Mary-Kate Olsen.
[glow=silver,2,300]Career[/glow]
[glow=silver,2,300]1990s[/glow]
At sixteen, 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]2000s[/glow]
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. In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ's Men of the Year for acting.
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle 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. 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."
Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.Also in 2005, Ledger portrayed a fictionalised 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.
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.
Ledger plays iconic comic book villain the Joker in The Dark Knight, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins to be released on July 18, 2008. The Dark Knight was in post-production at the time of Ledger's death; it includes his work as completed, though its marketing campaign, which, prior to his death, focused on his character the Joker, may still be adjusted prior to its summer 2008 release.
The film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he had been cast in a major supporting role, was in production at the time of his death.
[glow=silver,2,300]Directorial Work[/glow]
Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had started exploring this avenue by making some music videos, as well as a short film. He started a record company with singer Ben Harper; as part of his involvement he directed a music video in 2006 for Harper's song "Morning Yearning".[citations needed] He also directed two video clips for Australian hip-hop artist N'fa– "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)".
In 2007, at a news conference at the Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a film about the British troubadour Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. As a first step towards this project, he created and appeared in a short film set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression, "Black Eyed Dog", which was "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression." Ledger's film is included in an anthology of short films about Drake, Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake, which received its world premiere at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Los Angeles, on October 5, 2007.
He was also working with Scottish writer/producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis, which would have been his first feature film as a director.
[glow=silver,2,300]Press Controversies[/glow]
Ledger had a turbulent relationship with paparazzi photographers but strongly denied allegations that he spat at and assaulted a photographer in Sydney in 2004. On January 13, 2006, several photographers retaliated for the alleged incident, squirting Ledger and Michelle Williams with water pistols as they walked the red carpet for the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain.
Ledger was also 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." 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.
Ledger came under fire after he 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. (A cinema in Utah had banned the film). Ledger had also referred to West Virginia as having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s, but West Virginian scholars disputed 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."
[glow=silver,2,300]Death[/glow]
At about 2:45 PM on January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious at his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in SoHo, Manhattan. Emergency crews arrived soon after but were unable to revive him.
After an initial autopsy on January 23, 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York announced its conclusions based on the toxicology analysis on February 6, 2008: "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. ... We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications," prescribed commonly for treatment and alleviation of insomnia, anxiety, depression, pain, cold symptoms, and related ailments. The Medical Examiner's Office announced that it would not be publicly disclosing the official estimated time of death. After two weeks of speculation, the official announcement of the cause of his death heightened concerns about general "abuse of prescription medications."
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." Prior to his return to New York from his last film assignment, in London, in January 2008, he was apparently suffering from some kind of respiratory illness.
[glow=silver,2,300]Memorial Tributes[/glow]
On January 23, 2008, 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 their grief and desire for privacy. Two days later, memorial tributes were posted by family members, Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, 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 saying Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain was "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, Western Australia. 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Forthcoming Films[/glow]
Ledger's death affects not only the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight but also production for Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. 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.
[glow=silver,2,300]Filmography
[/glow]
1992
[li]Clowning Around.
1997
[/li][li]Paws.
[/li][li]Blackrock.
1999
[/li][li]Two Hands.
[/li][li]10 Things I Hate About You.
2000
[/li][li]The Patriot.
[/li][li]Monster's Ball.
2001
[/li][li]A Knight's Tale.
2002
[/li][li]The Four Feathers.
2003
[/li][li]The Order.
[/li][li]Ned Kelly.
[/li][li]Casanova.
2005
[/li][li]Brokeback Mountain.
[/li][li]The Brothers Grimm.
[/li][li]Lords of Dogtown.
2006
[/li][li]Candy.
2007
[/li][li]I'm Not There.
[/li][li]Black Eyed Dog.
2008
[/li][li]The Dark Knight.
2009
[/li][li]The Imaginarium of Doctor - production suspended due to Ledger's death.
[/li][li]Parnassus - production suspended due to Ledger's death.
Television
1993
[/li][li]Ship to Shore.
1996
[/li][li]Sweat.
1997
[/li][li]Home and Away.
[/li][li]Roar.
[/li][/ul][/color]
www.mtv.com/movies/photos/o/oscars06/eye_candy/heath1.jpg
[/img]
[glow=silver,2,300]Awards & Nominations[/glow]
[li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Australian Film Institute Awards:
[/li][li]1999 - Best Lead Actor, Two Hands (Nominated).
[/li][li]2003 - Best Lead Actor, Ned Kelly (Nominated).
[/li][li]2006 - Best Lead Actor, Candy (Nominated).
BAFTA:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Golden Globe Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
Independent Spirit Awards:
[/li][li]2008 - Robert Altman Award, I'm Not There. (Won) *shared w/ cast and crew.
[/li][li]2006 - Best Male Lead, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
MTV Movie Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Best Kiss, Brokeback Mountain (Won) *shared w/ Jake Gyllenhaal.
[/li][li]2002 - Best Kiss, A Knight's Tale (Nominated) *shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon.
[/li][li]2002 - Best Musical Sequence A Knight's Tale (Nominated) *shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon.
[/li][li]2000 - Best Musical Sequence 10 Things I Hate About You (Nominated).
Screen Actors Guild Awards:
[/li][li]2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
[/li][li]2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated).
[/li][/ul][/color]