Heath Andrew Ledger was born in the largest and capital city of Western Australia into the family of a French teacher and a mining engineer who used his considerable wealth to become a racing driver. His great-grandfather was a well-known Australian philanthropist and a local heroic figure. This not only represented an interesting combination of influences, but also provided Heath with material carefreeness and the opportunity to find the most comfortable career for himself. He started acting at the elementary school, his first role was, with a bit of retroactive irony, the forever young Peter Pan. At that time, after the divorce of his parents, he clung to his older sister, who was also engaged in acting and supported Ledger’s talent. Young Heath especially looked up to the musical icon Gene Kelly, and being physically fit himself, he also started to dance – for example, he led a sixty-member dance team that won the Australian Rock Eisteddfod Challenge as the first all-boy group in history. Tamed Mountain | Focus Features Heath began his acting career at the age of sixteen, immediately after graduating from high school. For the first years, he had to be content with small roles of local reach, but soon he began to gain recognition from local critics and viewers. Subsequently, he began to look around the United States and Hollywood. His final entry into the global mainstream was a role in the modern Shakespearean comedy Ten Reasons Why I Hate You when he was just twenty. And then it went on. In 2000, he appeared alongside another well-known Australian, Mel Gibson, in the role of his son in Patriot, a year later he played the main character in the romantic comedy The Knight’s Tale, but he also appeared in the controversial Oscar winner Ball of the Monsters. In 2004, one of the main roles in Taming of the Shrew was the entry among the cream of the crop.
As a young progressive, Ledger flirted with queer characters throughout his career—often seen as both a creative challenge and a show of solidarity among actors in the 1990s. But the success and importance of Tamed Mountain exceeded all expectations. The audience familiar with queer work did not find much new in it, but we consider the film’s decisive entry into the public space a historical milestone. Ledger then directed a very vocal and unequivocal condemnation of any person or institution that displayed homophobia in his presence regarding Taming of the Shrew.
Téma•3. 4. 2024
Marlon Brando was born 100 years ago. The genius, the rebel and the weirdo still pay for the acting godBy this time, Ledger’s star was shining brightly. “The next Marlon Brando,” said the media. This was helped by Heath’s not-so-warm relationship, especially with the Australian tabloid media, which in turn portrayed him a bit more negatively and problematically than was necessary. Due to conflicts with the press, Ledger left his country permanently and settled in the more anonymous America. Apart from his birthday being only one day apart, he and Brando were united by seemingly boundless energy and devotion to their roles. Ledger also didn’t like to repeat himself, which is why in his short filmography we can find such a rich variety of genres and characters. The Dark Knight | Warner Bros. Ledger’s most famous role was, of course, Nolan’s The Dark Knight, where he portrayed the Joker in an amazing way. A month after the end of filming, he then overdosed on a mixture of drugs that were used to treat his insomnia. As is often the case in these cases, it was never fully clear how much Ledger was overusing these drugs, how much they were prescribed responsibly, and how much Ledger helped with some of his own addition.
Recenze•16. 7. 2023
The Dark Knight remains one of the best comics out there, even if it doesn’t live up to any of its promises
The role of the Joker has been a gift and a curse to his legacy. On the one hand, he gave a riveting and entertaining performance that won him an Oscar (which, by the way, definitely wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t died – we know how the Academy feels about comics). On the other hand, his death at this very moment connected him too much to the role of the Joker and determined the public perception of who Ledger was.
It was very tempting to fall into fanciful theories about how the role of the Joker robbed Ledger of his sanity and cost him his life, which frankly is childish and naive. The Joker is the type of role that an actor enjoys because he can break away from realism and go wild. And there is no reason to think that this time was any different. Although Ledger suffered from a problem with sleep, it had been a problem for him for many years and intensified with each filming. Even Michelle Williams, who was in a relationship with Ledger for some time after filming Tame Mountain, said that he suffered from chronic insomnia the entire time she knew him.
Filmy•29. 2. 2024
The most quoted line of The Dark Knight was not written by Christopher Nolan. He didn’t even know what it meant
The media accepted only the first part of the information and ignored the second, so reports began to spread about how Ledger, devoted to method acting, suffered from insomnia, believing that he was the Joker. Which is absurd. Heath had long-term health issues that had nothing to do with his specific role (which he left a month ago). His reported (albeit denied by other parties) problem with marijuana abuse probably didn’t help either.
Ledger’s death at the age of twenty-eight made him a legend and an immortal star. But this is not a case of a young actor who left on top. Ledger probably had his best ahead of him. The commercial success of The Dark Knight and its originally planned sequel would allow him to choose any acting challenges regardless of their lucrativeness, which he would surely take advantage of. As the unfinished Imaginarium of dr. Parnassus, where his actor friends had to finish the scenes for him. He would probably continue to mix genres and seek out top filmmakers whose work he could patronize with his name. But we will never know how it would have turned out. Take a look at the ranking of the best films of all time according to the Kinobox database.
sources: Wikipedia, Kinobox
