Heath Ledger
From Philosopedia
Heath Ledger (4 April 1979 - 22 January 2008)
Ledger, who was to win many awards as an actor, was the son of French teacher Sally Ledger Bell (nee Ramshaw) and mining engineer and race car driver Kim Ledger. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he sat for early graduation exams but when sixteen left school for an acting career. His mother is descended from the Clan Campbell of Scotland. In Perth, his father is known as being of the family that owns Ledger Engineering.
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The Actor
In 1996, Ledger played the part of a gay cyclist in Sweat, a TV series. In 1997, he acted in Roar, a fantasy-drama for Fox Broadcasting Company. In 1999, he starred in 10 Things I Hate About You, a teenager comedy, then had the lead role in Two Hands, a movie directed by Gregor Jordan.
Ledger then was in nineteen movies, a list that included Monster's Ball (2001), The Brothers Grimm (2005), and Brokeback Mountain (2005). In the latter movie, directed by Ang Lee, he played a gay cowboy (the top) along with Jake Gyllenhaal (the bottom).
On 18 July 2008, Ledger appeared posthumously in The Dark Knight, a film directed by Christopher Nolan that is about Batman's war on crime. Ledger plays the role of a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker.
Awards and Nominations
Academy Awards
- 2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
Australian Film Institute Awards
- 1999 - Best Lead Actor, Two Hands (Nominated)
- 2003 - Best Lead Actor, Ned Kelly (Nominated)
- 2006 - Best Lead Actor, Candy (Nominated)
BAFTA
- 2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
Golden Globe Awards
- 2006 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
Independent Spirit Awards
- 2008 - Robert Altman Award, I'm Not There. (Won, and shared w/ cast and crew)
- 2006 - Best Male Lead, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
MTV Movie Awards
- 2006 - Best Kiss, Brokeback Mountain (Won and shared w/ Jake Gyllenhaal)
- 2002 - Best Kiss, A Knight's Tale (Nominated and shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon)
- 2002 - Best Musical Sequence A Knight's Tale (Nominated and shared w/ Shannyn Sossamon)
- 2000 - Best Musical Sequence 10 Things I Hate About You (Nominated)
Screen Actors Guild Awards
- 2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
- 2006 - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Brokeback Mountain (Nominated)
Marriage
Gary Susman was one of many who wrote about Ledger's 16-month romance with The Ring star, Naomi Watts. Heath's sister, Kate a publicist, explained, "At this time in their lives both are busy pursuing careers which are taking them in different directions. They remain close friends." He also had dated Lisa Zane and Heather Graham until meeting Michelle Williams on the Canadian set of Brokeback Mountain. Their daughter Matilda Rose was born 28 October 2005. Ledger sold his residence in Bronte, New South Wales, and shared an apartment in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, New York, with Williams.
In September 2007, Williams's father, Larry, reported his daughter's and Ledger's three-year relationship. At the time, her father was in Australia appealing a U.S. order for him to be extradited to face tax evasion charges. New York City gossip columns began reporting which late-night clubs and restaurants, including the Beatrice in Greenwich Village, where he had been spotted.
Ledger then was reported to have temporarily rented a fourth-floor loft apartment at 421 Broome Street in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. On 22 January 2008, he was found by a female masseuse in his bed there, nude and face down.
Death
An initial autopsy on 23 January 2008 was followed by an official announcement. Ellen Borakove, spokesman for the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, released a statement on 6 February 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.
Sarah Lyall in The New York Times had interviewed him in November 2007, describing how demanding his roles had been, how weary he sometimes was after getting only two hours of sleep, and how “People always feel compelled to sum you up, to presume that they have you and can describe you. That’s fine. But there are many stories inside of me and a lot I want to achieve outside of one flat note.”
A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on 11 April 2008 accused two photographers with having plied Ledger with cocaine and secretly making a tape. The suit, filed by an unidentified People reporter and obtained by TMZ.com, claims photographers Eric Munn and Darren Banks duped Ledger into thinking they were guests at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in January 2006. When he became aware they were videotaping him snorting cocaine, he became furious despite their insisting the tape would be destroyed. However, the film reportedly was sold to "Entertainment Tonight" for $200,000 according to the lawsuit.
Funeral
Ledger is not known to have been attracted to nor was he active with any of the organized religions or non-believers' organizations. Mary Bergin, of the Council of Australian Humanist Societies, wrote the following:
- We have made inquiries and are sure that Heath Ledger was not a member of a Humanist society in Australia. He was educated at a large non government College - probably Anglican - or some other denomination. I think that was where the funeral was. In Australia secular or civil non-religious funerals and weddings are common for people without a formal religion.
His funeral was colorful, said by one to have been as if planned by humanities humanists for a fellow freethinker, complete with quoting a Shakespearean sonnet. For example, private memorial ceremonies were held in New York City and Los Angeles, friends relating their admiration and including stories of his humorous escapades. Several hundred attended a memorial service in Perth at Penrhos College, an independent rather than a religious school, after which he was cremated in Fremantle, Western Australia, and buried at Fremantle Cemetery on 9 February 2008.
An online video showed individuals arriving at a memorial. At the school mixed tributes included rock and Aboriginal music and footage from Ledger's films. A wake was held at a restaurant that overlooks the Indian Ocean, a place Ledger liked.
The Sydney Morning Herald included,
- The service began with the song These Days by Powderfinger, a favourite of Ledger, and included "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes and "Come Together by the Beatles." Blanchett, who co-starred with Ledger in Bob Dylan film I'm Not There, was among those who delivered a eulogy, speaking of her sadness at the loss of a great acting talent and potential that would never be realised.
- "One of the very poignant things she said was what a great potential we will never know because achieved so much in his short life and was capable of so much more," said Barbara Scott, West Australian Opposition arts spokeswomon.
- After the service, in a convoy of black BMWs, Ledger's closest family, accompanied by Williams, drove to Fremantle Cemetery for a short private funeral, where Ledger was cremated.
- In a moving ceremony in the cemetery's chapel, Williams reportedly read Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 (Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day).
Michelle Cazzulino in Australia's The Daily Telegraph described the scene that followed:
- AS the sun stained the horizon pink, they shed their mourning clothes and ran towards the ocean, finally outpacing the grief that had engulfed them. Some might have observed that it was too soon for this - that all the laughing, shrieking and splashing should have been reserved for an altogether more appropriate occasion. But as they gathered at the shoreline, arm in arm, a sense of serenity settled over the group. As the day gradually drew to a close, their grip on the past loosened but their own ties grew stronger. As one mourner noted, it's what Heath Ledger would have wanted: an intensely private send-off from those who knew him best. In the centre of the group, her swollen eyes hidden behind sunglasses, Ledger's former fiancee Michelle Williams sat gazing across the ocean. Of those gathered, Williams had shouldered the heaviest burden, mourning the loss of her two-year-old daughter's father at four services held in two continents in the space of less than three weeks. Hours earlier, she had paid tribute to Ledger at a funeral attended by 10 members of his immediate family, reading Shakespeare's sonnet, "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" in his honour. Later, as the waves on Perth's Cottesloe Beach lapped around her funeral dress, the mourners formed a protective huddle around her, as though their bodies might insulate her from grief. At one point, a few young men started to rally: "The sun goes down on our love," one said. "But it will never go down on our Heathy," others replied. When the horizon finally swallowed the light, they cheered, clapped and smiled through tears. As they turned to retrieve crumpled suits and dresses that lay in on the sand, there was a sense that their heartache had momentarily been healed. The sun would rise again tomorrow, and somehow they would find a way to it together.
(Mary Bergin to WAS, 7 March 2008)
