Heath Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia, his parents 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 for several months in 2000 to 2001, and he had a serious on-and-off-again long-term relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of Ned Kelly and with whom he lived at times from 2002 to 2004. In the summer of 2004, 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
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 for several months in 2000 to 2001, and he had a serious on-and-off-again long-term relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of Ned Kelly and with whom he lived at times from 2002 to 2004. In the summer of 2004, 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
ACTING CAREER.
1990s
At 16, 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.
2000s
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.
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his 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, making him, at age 26, the ninth youngest nominee for a 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." Also in 2005, Ledger portrayed a fictionalised version of Giacomo Casanova in Casanova, a romantic comedy which co-starred Sienna Miller.
“
... no amount of money changes what I do between 'action' and 'cut' ... I never had money, and I was very happy without it. When I die, my money’s not gonna come with me. My movies will live on – for people to judge what I was as a person. I just want to stay curious. —Heath Ledger (2007)
”
In 2006, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger's next release was a return to his Australian roots, cast alongside fellow Australian Abbie Cornish in Candy, as a pair of young heroin addicts attempting to break free of their addiction, in a film adaptation of a 1998 novel, Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction.
In 2007, one of six actors embodying different stages in the life of Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There, he portrayed a fictional character named Robbie Clark, and, posthumously, on February 23, 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the film's ensemble cast, its director, and its casting director.
Ledger played the Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, first released, in Australia, on July 16, 2008. He viewed the Dark Knight's Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance.Ledger had completed half of his final film performance as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the time of his death, on January 22, 2008
At 16, 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.
2000s
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.
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his 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, making him, at age 26, the ninth youngest nominee for a 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." Also in 2005, Ledger portrayed a fictionalised version of Giacomo Casanova in Casanova, a romantic comedy which co-starred Sienna Miller.
“
... no amount of money changes what I do between 'action' and 'cut' ... I never had money, and I was very happy without it. When I die, my money’s not gonna come with me. My movies will live on – for people to judge what I was as a person. I just want to stay curious. —Heath Ledger (2007)
”
In 2006, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger's next release was a return to his Australian roots, cast alongside fellow Australian Abbie Cornish in Candy, as a pair of young heroin addicts attempting to break free of their addiction, in a film adaptation of a 1998 novel, Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction.
In 2007, one of six actors embodying different stages in the life of Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There, he portrayed a fictional character named Robbie Clark, and, posthumously, on February 23, 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the film's ensemble cast, its director, and its casting director.
Ledger played the Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, first released, in Australia, on July 16, 2008. He viewed the Dark Knight's Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance.Ledger had completed half of his final film performance as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the time of his death, on January 22, 2008
Death.
At about 2:45 p.m. (EST), on January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, and his masseuse, Diana Wolozin, in his fourth-floor loft apartment, at 421 Broome Street, in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. According to the police, Wolozin, who had arrived early for a pre-scheduled 3:00 p.m. appointment with Ledger, used his cell phone "speed-dial button" to call Ledger's friend actress Mary-Kate Olsen, for help, and Olsen, who was in California, directed a New York City private security guard to go to the scene; at 3:26 p.m., "[fewer] than 15 minutes after Wolozin first saw him in bed and only a few moments" after first calling Olsen and calling her again to say that Wolozin feared that he was dead, Wolozin telephoned 9-1-1 "to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing," and, at the urging of the 9-1-1 operator, administered CPR, which was unsuccessful in reviving him. Emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived seven minutes later, at 3:33 p.m. ("at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen"), but were also unable to revive him. At 3:36 p.m., Ledger was pronounced dead and his body removed from the apartment
Cause Of Death
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. Although the Associated Press and other media reported that "police estimate Ledger's time of death between 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m." (on January 22, 2008), the Medical Examiner's Office 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 the growing problems of prescription drug abuse or misuse and Combined Drug Intoxication (CDI).
Posthumous Films.
In July 18 was released Batman 'The Dark Knight', in this movie Ledger plays the famous batman's enemy 'The Joker', ledger's perfoming have received great critics and he could win an academy award.
In 2009 will be the premiere of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in this movie ledger plays a character named Tony
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