Remembering Heath Ledger Ten Years After His Death

They say that time flies by, but I still can’t believe it’s been a full ten years since the passing of Heath Ledger. A whole decade since one of the greatest actors of all time was cruelly taken from us at the all too young age of just twenty-eight.

Although his life was abruptly cut short, Heath Ledger left behind a legacy which few can even begin to match. Although his IMDb profile lists only twenty-three acting credits, Ledger threw himself into each of his roles with such dedication to his craft that his performances were impossible to forget.

Going back to the beginning, Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia on 4 April 1979. His first major film role was a small supporting part in the 1997 Australian crime thriller Blackrock, which was followed by a nine-episode stint on the soap opera Home and Away. However, it was his leading performance in the fantasy adventure series Roar that really made Ledger a household name in his native country. Whilst the show only lasted for one season, it was still popular enough to put the young actor on the map, and paved his way to stardom.

The 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You made Ledger a star among global mainstream cinema goers, and he enjoyed a steady stream of hits throughout the following years, appearing in films such as Monster’s Ball, A Knight’s Tale, and The Four Features, before his performance in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain earned him his first Oscar nomination and truly turned him into an A-lister. Whilst he ultimately didn’t win the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, he did pick up a Australian Film Institute Award for Best International Actor for his role in the film, and his acceptance speech is bound to make you smile.

Ultimately, however, his breathtaking portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece The Dark Knight will remain Ledger’s defining role. Arguably the best performance in the history of cinema, his monumental turn as the Clown Prince of Crime posthumously earned the late actor just about every major screen acting award in history, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. And never have such accolades been more deserved.

Although he had finished filming The Dark Knight before his death, Ledger had not completed work on Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, leading to the remaining scenes featuring his character Tony to be completed by Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Johnny Depp, which was made possibly by the film’s basis in fantasy and the supernatural. Rather than being paid for the film, the three stars chose to donate their salaries to Ledger’s daughter, Matilda, meaning that her financial future is now secure.

Whilst he never had the opportunity to direct a feature-length film, Ledger did try his hand at directing at various points throughout his short life. He helmed a variety of music videos, including Cause an Effect for N’fa, Morning Yearning for Ben Harper, and most notably, Modest Mouse’s King Rat. The latter is notable for being animated rather than live action, proving that Ledger’s talents know no limits. The six minute work of art has accumulated over six million views on Modest Mouse’s official YouTube channel, and can be enjoyed in all its dark and twisted hand drawn beauty below. It’s clear that Ledger was highly skilled when it came to directing, so one can only wonder about the films he would have helmed had he lived.

There has been much speculation as to the exact cause of Heath Ledger’s mysterious death, although the coroner’s verdict listed it as an official overdose of prescription drugs. While people like to speculate that he committed suicide or that his role as the Joker drove him to insanity, neither of these theories are based on any kind of evidence (his family has strongly denied that his Joker role had effects on his health), and they do little more than tarnish his memory. So let’s just accept that his death was a tragic accident, and leave it at that.

If I was a religious man, I would wish that Heath Ledger rests in eternal peace. As I’m not religious, however, I will instead wish that his legacy continues to live on from now until the end of time. I don’t know what the world will be like in hundreds of years’ time, but I do know that even if cinema is no longer a preferred method of entertainment, people will still be talking about the life and career of the actor known as Heath Ledger.