Hail the Victorious dead!

May we forever remember, this great man, as the legendary Joker. No we don't need to do that.

Heath Andrew Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia to Sally Ramshaw and Kim Ledger on April 4th, 1979. He was found dead on the 22nd if January, 2008 in New York, by an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. But, let's not get past that as the only memories we have as Heathy. As a young, hunky 20 year old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of not much depth. He has spent the past five years trying desperately to sway this image away, but this has indeed been a double-edged sword. But that comes much later in his story.

As the story goes, in junior high it was compulsory to do one of two electives, either cooking or drama, and as Heath could honestly not see himself in a cooking class, he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, there was no denying that. However, the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent, possibly out of jealousy. When he was 17, he and a friend, decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams are made, or at least, where actors can possibly get their big break. However, upon arriving in Sydney with a purported 69 cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break. His first real acting job came in a low budget movie called Blackrock in 1997, a largely unimpressive cliche; a teen angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He did not have a large part in this movie. In fact, it was a very small one.

The only thing of notice in his role is you get to see him get his lights punched out. After that small role, Heath auditioned for a role in a TV show called Sweat, in 1996. This was about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He got offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, which led him to look for other roles. He was in Home and Away in 1988 for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws in 1997.

Paws was a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this did nothing other than give him a small paycheck, but nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands in 1999. He went to America trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in Roar in 1997 opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga. He could not find any American roles but then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands in 1999, which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate about You in 1999.

After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a teen hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama, The Patriot, in 2000 along side Mel Gibson.What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball, in 2001, but his version of Ned Kelly in 2003 was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain in 2005, for which he was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA.

Heath worked with Orlando Bloom in Ned Kelly. He was named "the new Matt Damon" in Josie and the Pussycats in 2001. They acted side by side in The Brothers Grimm in 2005. Most of his wardrobe was designed by his friend Shem. He was of Irish and Scottish ancestry. Former fiancee Michelle Williams gave birth to daughter Matilda Rose Ledger on 28 October 2005, who weighed in at 6 lb, 5 oz. He met Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Heath was the first non-American actor to portray the Joker. He was set to star in Baz Luhtmann's pre-WWII drama, but backed out to play the Joker in The Dark Knight in 2008. When he was cast as The Joker in The Dark Knight, rumors circulated that his Brokeback Mountain cast mate Hake Gyllenhaal would be playing district attorney Harvey Dent. Instead, Aaron Eckhart took the place of Harvey Dent and Jake's sister Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes. He dropped out of Australia to do The Dark Knight. He called off his engagement to Michelle Williams in September 2007. He was chosen by Empire Magazine as number 79 of 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world (#79) 2007.

His first acting role was as "Peter Pan", at age 10, at a local theater company, and he was painfully shy. His first lead role (A Knight's Tale, 2001) in a film and his final film role (The Dark Knight, 2008) focused on the everyman protagonist, set against an unforgiving public; to be accepted as a "true" knight. He was good friends with Russell Crowe. He was the youngest actor to play the Joker in a Batman movie, The Dark Knight in 2008, as oppose to Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero. Before appearing with Christian Bale in The Dark Knight, the two of them both played incarnations of Bob Dylan, in I'm Not There in 2007. This makes Ledger the second Joker actor to share a role with a Batman actor. Previously, Cesar Romero shared the role of Lawman John "Doc" Holliday with Adam West and Val Kilmer.

On February 9, 2008, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penhros College in Perth, Western Australia followed by a private wake on Cottesloe Beach with his family and friends.
After his death his body was returned to Perth, Western Australia, where his body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, with his ashes to be "scattered in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, next to two of his grandparents.


Heath Andrew Ledger will live on in infamy, in my opinion, his role as The Joker, was the best, by far. Creepy, but the best. I think his latest movie, The Dark Knight, was wonderfully wonderful, and he will win a nomination. I think he'll get it... Watch this movie, no matter what, I think it's worth the money.