| Name | Heath Ledger |
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| Alt | Close up of a man's face with brown eyes, tousled brown hair and scraggly beard growth. He is looking toward his left. He is wearing a grey jumper with an orange stripe near his left shoulder and upper left arm. The background is blue with out of focus writing. |
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| Caption | Ledger at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival. |
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| Birth name | Heath Andrew Ledger |
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| Birth date | April 04, 1979 |
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| Birth place | Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
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| Death date | January 22, 2008 |
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| Death place | New York City, New York, United States |
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| Occupation | Actor |
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| Years active | 1992–2008 |
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| Domesticpartner | Michelle Williams(2005–2007, 1 child) |
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Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career. His work encompassed nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster's Ball (2001), A Knight's Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.
For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the 2005 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the 2006 "Best Actor" award from the Australian Film Institute and was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor 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, 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. Ledger was nominated and won awards for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, for which he became the first actor to win an award posthumously, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. from an accidental "toxic combination of prescription drugs." A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his penultimate performance, as the Joker in The Dark Knight, his death coming during editing of the film and casting a shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $180 million production. At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, he had completed about half of his work performing the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Family and personal life
Heath Ledger was born in
Perth, Western Australia, the son of Sally Ledger (
née Ramshaw), a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a racing-car driver and
mining engineer, whose family established and owned the Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather. and later
Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as
Peter Pan at age 10. Ledger's older sister Kate, an actress and later a
publicist, to 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 to both perform in and 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, According to the 10th Anniversary commentary by his co-stars for "10 Things I Hate About You", he and Julia Stiles began dating during the film and dated for several years. 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 28 October 2005 in New York City. Matilda Rose's godparents are Ledger's Brokeback co-star Jake Gyllenhaal and Williams's Dawson's Creek castmate Busy Philipps. Ledger sold his residence in Bronte, New South Wales, and moved to the United States, where he shared an apartment with Williams, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, from 2005 to 2007. In September 2007, Williams' father 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.
Career
1990s
After sitting for early graduation exams at 16, Ledger left school to pursue an acting career.
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."
After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger costarred with fellow Australian Abbie Cornish in the 2006 Australian film Candy, an adaptation of the 1998 novel , as young heroin addicts in love attempting to break free of their addiction, whose mentor is played by Geoffrey Rush; for his performance as sometime poet Dan, Ledger was nominated for three "Best Actor" awards, including one of the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, which both Cornish and Rush won in their categories. Shortly after the release of Candy, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
, Todd Haynes, Charlotte Gainsbourg at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007.]]
As one of six actors embodying different aspects of the life of Bob Dylan in the 2007 film I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes, Ledger "won praise for his portrayal of 'Robbie [Clark],' a moody, counter-culture actor who represents the romanticist side of Dylan, but says accolades are never his motivation." Posthumously, on 23 February 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.
.]]
To prepare for the role, Ledger told Empire, "I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts"; after reiterating his view of the character as "just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown", he added that Nolan had given him "free rein" to create the role, which he found "fun, because there are no real boundaries to what the Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke." For his work in The Dark Knight, Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his family accepting it on his behalf, as well as numerous other posthumous awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, which Christopher Nolan accepted for him.
Directorial work
Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had made some
music videos, which director
Todd Haynes praised highly in his tribute to Ledger upon accepting the
ISP Robert Altman Award, which Ledger posthumously shared, on 23 February 2008. In 2006 Ledger directed music videos for the title track on Australian
hip-hop artist
N'fa's CD debut solo album
Cause an Effect and for the single "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)". Later that year, Ledger inaugurated a new record label, Masses Music, with singer
Ben Harper and also directed a music video for Harper's song "Morning Yearning".
At a news conference at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a documentary film about the British singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. Ledger created and acted in a music video set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression "Black Eyed Dog"—a title "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression" (black dog); it was shown publicly only twice, first at the Bumbershoot Festival, in Seattle, Washington, held from 1 September to 3 September 2007; and secondly as part of "A Place To Be: A Celebration of Nick Drake", with its screening of Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake, "a series of short filmed homages to Nick Drake" (including Ledger's), sponsored by American Cinematheque, at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Hollywood, on 5 October 2007. After Ledger's death, his music video for "Black Eyed Dog" was shown on the Internet and excerpted in news clips distributed via YouTube.
He was working with Scottish screenwriter and producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis, for which he was planning both to act and to direct, which would have been his first feature film as a director. Ledger's final directorial work, in which he shot two music videos before his death, premiered in 2009. The music videos, completed for Modest Mouse and Grace Woodroofe, include an animated feature for Modest Mouse's song, "King Rat", and the Woodroofe video for her cover of David Bowie's "Quicksand". The "King Rat" video premiered on 4 August 2009.
Press controversies
Ledger's relationship with the press in Australia was sometimes turbulent, and it led to his relocating to
New York City. In 2004 he strongly denied press reports alleging that "he spat at journalists on the
Sydney set of the film
Candy," or that one of his relatives had done so later, outside Ledger's Sydney home.
After his performance on stage at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards, when he had giggled in presenting Brokeback Mountain as a nominee for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the Los Angeles Times referred to his presentation as an "apparent gay spoof." Ledger called the Times later and explained that his levity resulted from stage fright, saying that he had been told that he would be presenting the award only minutes earlier; he stated: "I am so sorry and I apologise for my nervousness. I would be absolutely horrified if my stage fright was misinterpreted as a lack of respect for the film, the topic and for the amazing filmmakers."
Ledger 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; actually, a cinema in Utah had banned the film. He had also referred mistakenly to West Virginia's having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s, but state scholars disputed his statement, observing 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."
Sleep difficulties and other work-related health issues
In their
New York Times interview, published on 4 November 2007, Ledger told
Sarah Lyall that his recently-completed roles in
I'm Not There (2007) and
The Dark Knight (2008) 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."
Death
ged and being rolled away from his apartment.]]
At about 2:45
p.m. (
EST), on 22 January 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.
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.
On 23 January 2008, at 10:50 a.m., Australian time, 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 Bros. (distributor of The Dark Knight), and thousands of Ledger's fans around the world.
Several actors 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." Verne Troyer, who was working with Ledger on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the time of his death, had a heart shape, an exact duplicate of a symbol that Ledger scrawled on a piece of paper with his email address, tattooed on his hand in remembrance of Ledger because Ledger "had made such an impression on [him]."
On 1 February 2008, in her first public statement after Ledger's death, Michelle Williams expressed her heartbreak and described Ledger's spirit as surviving in their daughter.
After attending private memorial ceremonies in Los Angeles, Ledger's family members returned with his body to Perth.
On 9 February 2008, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penrhos College, garnering considerable press attention; afterward Ledger's body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, followed by a private service attended by only 10 closest family members, with his ashes to be interred later 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.
Autopsy and toxicological analysis
After two weeks of intense media speculation about possible causes of Ledger's death, on 6 February 2008, the
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York released its conclusions, based on an initial
autopsy of 23 January 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." 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 and manner of Ledger's death heightened concerns about the growing problems of prescription drug abuse or misuse and
Combined Drug Intoxication (CDI).
Federal investigation
Late in February 2008, a
DEA investigation of medical professionals relating to Ledger's death exonerated two American
physicians, 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 4 August 2008, citing unnamed sources, Murray Weiss, of the New York Post, first reported that Mary-Kate Olsen had "refused [through her attorney, Michael C. Miller] to be interviewed by federal investigators probing the accidental drug death of her close friend Heath Ledger ... [without] ... immunity from prosecution," and that, when asked about the matter, Miller at first declined further comment. Later that day, after the police confirmed the gist of Weiss's account to the Associated Press, Miller issued a statement denying that Olsen supplied Ledger with the drugs causing his death and asserting that she did not know their source." In his statement, Miller said specifically: "Despite tabloid speculation, Mary-Kate Olsen had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger's home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them," emphasizing that media "descriptions [attributed to an unidentified source] are incomplete and inaccurate."
After a flurry of further media speculation, on 6 August 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan closed its investigation into Ledger's death without filing any charges and rendering moot its subpoena of Olsen. With the clearing of the two doctors and Olsen, and the closing of the investigation because the prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office "don't believe there's a viable target," it is still not known how Ledger obtained the oxycodone and hydrocodone in the lethal drug combination that killed him.
Eleven months after Ledger's death, on 23 December 2008, Jake Coyle, writing for the Associated Press, announced that "Heath Ledger's death was voted 2008's top entertainment story by U.S. newspaper and broadcast editors surveyed by The Associated Press," as it resulted in: "shock and confusion" about "the circumstances", the ruling of the death as an accident caused by "a toxic combination of prescription drugs", and the continuation of "his legacy... [i]n a roundly acclaimed performance as the Joker in the year's biggest box office hit The Dark Knight."
Controversy over will
After Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his
will, filed in
New York City on 28 February 2008, and his daughter's access to his financial legacy, his father, Kim Ledger, 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 "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be". Some of Ledger's relatives may be challenging the legal status of his will signed in 2003, prior to his involvement with Williams and the birth of their daughter and not updated to include them, which divides half of his
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 Williams, has also joined the controversy about Ledger's will as it was filed in New York City soon after his death.
On 31 March 2008, stimulating another controversy pertaining to Ledger's estate, Gemma Jones and Janet Fife-Yeomans published an "Exclusive" report, in The Daily Telegraph, citing Ledger's uncle Haydn Ledger and other family members, who "believe the late actor may have fathered a secret love child" when he was 17, and stating 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 his secret love child." A few days later, reports citing telephone interviews with Ledger's uncles Haydn and Mike Ledger and the family of the other little girl, published in OK! and Us Weekly, "denied" those "claims", with Ledger's uncles and the little girl's mother and stepfather describing them as unfounded "rumors" distorted and exaggerated by the media.
On 15 July 2008, Fife-Yeomans reported further, via Australian News Limited, that "While Ledger left everything to his parents and three sisters, it is understood they have legal advice that under WA law, Matilda Rose is entitled to the lion's share" of his estate; its executors, Kim Ledger's former business colleague Robert John Collins and Geraldton accountant William Mark Dyson, "have applied for probate in the West Australian Supreme Court in Perth, advertising "for 'creditors and other persons' having claims on the estate to lodge them by 11 August 2008 ... to ensure all debts are paid before the estate is distributed...." According to this report by Fife-Yeomans, earlier reports citing Ledger's uncles,
On 27 September 2008, Ledger's father Kim stated that "the family has agreed to leave the [US]$16.3 million fortune to Matilda," adding: "There is no claim. Our family has gifted everything to Matilda." In October 2008, Forbes.com estimated Ledger's annual earnings from October 2007 through October 2008 – including his posthumous share of The Dark Knight's gross income of "[US]$991 million in box office revenue worldwide" –– as "[US]$20 million."
Posthumous films and awards
Ledger's death affected the marketing campaign for
Christopher Nolan's
The Dark Knight (2008) Although Gilliam temporarily suspended production on the latter film, In February 2008, as a "memorial tribute to the man many have called one of the best actors of his generation,"
Johnny Depp,
Jude Law, and
Colin Farrell signed on to take over Ledger's role, becoming multiple incarnations of his character, Tony, transformed in this "magical re-telling of the
Faust story," and the three actors have donated their fees for the film to Ledger's and Williams' daughter.
Speaking of editing The Dark Knight, on which Ledger had completed his work in October 2007, Nolan recalled, "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day. ... But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." Nolan dedicated the film in part to Ledger's memory, as well as to the memory of technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed during a car accident while preparing one of the film's stunts.
Released in July 2008, The Dark Knight broke several box office records and received both popular and critical accolades, especially with regard to Ledger's performance as the Joker. Even film critic David Denby, who does not praise the film overall in his pre-release review in The New Yorker, evaluates Ledger's work highly, describing his performance as both "sinister and frightening" and Ledger as "mesmerising in every scene", concluding: "His performance is a heroic, unsettling final act: this young actor looked into the abyss." Attempting to dispel widespread speculations that Ledger's performance as the Joker had in any way led to his death (as Denby and others suggest), Ledger's co-star and friend Christian Bale, who played opposite him as Batman, has stressed that, as an actor, Ledger greatly enjoyed meeting the challenges of creating that role, an experience that Ledger himself described as "the most fun I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have, playing a character."
Ledger received numerous awards for his Joker role in The Dark Knight. On 10 November 2008, he was nominated for two People's Choice Awards related to his work on the film, "Best Ensemble Cast" and "Best Onscreen Match-Up" (shared with Christian Bale), and Ledger won an award for "Match-Up" in the ceremony aired live on CBS in January 2009.
On 11 December 2008, it was announced that Ledger had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight; he subsequently won the award at the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony telecast on NBC on 11 January 2009 with Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan accepting on his behalf.
Film critics, co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Caine and many of Ledger's colleagues in the film community joined Bale in calling for and predicting a nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in recognition of Ledger's achievement in The Dark Knight. Ledger's subsequent nomination was announced on 22 January 2009, the anniversary of his death; Ledger went on to win the award, becoming the second person to win a posthumous Academy Award for acting, after fellow Australian actor Peter Finch, who won for 1976's Network. The award was accepted by Ledger's family.
Filmography
Television
Film
Music videos
(2006) "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction is Evil (She's Hot)", songs by N'fa, videos directed by Ledger.
(2006) "Morning Yearning," song by Ben Harper, video directed by Ledger.
(2007) "Black Eyed Dog," song written by
Nick Drake (1948–1974), video directed by and featuring Ledger.
See also
List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
List of posthumous Academy Award winners and nominees
References
Additional resources
Adler, Shawn."Heath Ledger Said He Hoped to Evolve as an Actor and Person in 2005 Interview: Late Actor Was Intelligent, Self-Aware during 'Brokeback Mountain' Chat." MTV.com, 22 January 2008. Accessed 18 March 2008. (Excerpts from transcript of interview with Heath Ledger conducted by John Norris in 2005.)
Arango, Tim. "Esquire Publishes a Diary That Isn't". The New York Times, nytimes.com, 6 March 2008, Books. Accessed 25 July 2008. (Rev. of Taddeo.)
"Death of a Star: Unsolved Mysteries". Newsweek, 4 February 2008: 62, Newsmakers. Both Web and print versions. Accessed 5 August 2008.
The Joker vs. The Real Heath: Entertainment Tonight Looks Back at the Career of Heath Ledger,
etonline.com (
CBS Studios Inc.), July 2008. Accessed 8 August 2008. ("ET takes a look back at Heath Ledger's career amid the hugely successful launch of '
The Dark Knight,' which features the late actor portraying the
Joker"; includes photo album.)
McShane John. . London: John Blake, 2008. ISBN 1844546330 (10). ISBN 978-1844546336 (13). (Excerpt listed below.)
–––. "Loves of Heath Ledger's Life". The Courier-Mail, news.com.au, 20 April 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008. (Book excerpt.)
Nolan, Christopher. "Transition: Charisma as Natural as Gravity: Heath Ledger, 28, Actor". Newsweek, 4 February 2008: 9, Periscope. Both Web (updated 26 January 2008) and print versions. Accessed 5 August 2008. (Eulogy.)
Norris, Chris. "(Untitled Heath Ledger Project): In Which the Protagonist Dies Mysteriously, and the Audience Analyzes His Final Days for Clues to His Real Character". New York, nymag.com, 18 February 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008.
Park, Michael Y. "Christian Bale on 'Kindred Spirit' Heath Ledger". Web. People, 25 June 2008. Accessed 5 August 2008. (See Wolf below.)
Robb, Brian J. Heath Ledger: Hollywood's Dark Star. London: Plexus Publishing Ltd, 2008. ISBN 0859654273 (10). ISBN 978-0859654272 (13).
Scott, A. O. "An Appraisal: Prince of Intensity with a Lightness of Touch". The New York Times, nytimes.com, 24 January 2008, Movies. Accessed 27 April 2008.
Sessums, Kevin, with photographs by Bruce Weber. "We're Having a Heath Wave". Vanity Fair, August 2000, vanityfair.com, August 2008. Web. (4 pages.) Accessed 21 April 2008. (Interview with Heath Ledger; illustrations in "Perth Album", by Bruce Weber.)
Taddeo, Lisa. "The Last Days of Heath Ledger". Esquire (April 2008), esquire.com, 5 March 2008. (Updated 21 July 2008.) Accessed 25 July 2008. (Fictional account; cf. rev. by Arango.)
Travers, Peter."Sundance: Shock". The Travers Take: News and Reviews from Rolling Stone's Movie Critic, Rolling Stone (Blog), rollingstone.com, 22 January 2008. Includes hyperlinked feature: Video Review: A Look at Heath Ledger's Best Performances (video by Jennifer Hsu, with audio commentary provided by Travers), 1 February 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008.
Wolf, Jeanne. "Christian Bale: 'Life Should Never Be Boring' ". Parade, 29 June 2008: 8–9. Both Web and print formats. Accessed 3 August 2008. (See Park above.)
External links
Heath Ledger at BBC In Pictures
Heath Ledger at CNN Topics
Heath Ledger at The Huffington Post
Heath Ledger at MSN Movies
Heath Ledger at MTV Movies
Heath Ledger at New York Times Topics
Heath Ledger at The Daily Telegraph obituary
Ledger, Heath (1979-2008) National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Heath Ledger
Category:Accidental deaths in New York
Category:Australian expatriate actors in the United States
Category:Australian film actors
Category:Australian music video directors
Category:Australian television actors
Category:BAFTA winners (people)
Category:BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
Category:Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery
Category:Drug-related deaths in New York
Category:Former students of Guildford Grammar School
Category:People from Brooklyn
Category:People from Perth, Western Australia
Category:Rock Eisteddfod Challenge participants
Category:Actors from Western Australia
Category:1979 births
Category:2008 deaths
