Heath Ledger will appear this summer, posthumously, as Batman's arch enemy, the Joker, in The Dark Knight. His portrayal of the mad criminal clown was the last role he finished before his death in a NYC apartment on January 22, 2008. (He was working on another film when he died, which will be his last bow so long as rewrites and such can make it so, according to the director.) While this performance will predictably display his dramatic ability, it will also be frighteningly entertaining, according to reports on the characterization. He was becoming an actor of the best kind -- one pursuing interesting work, not celebrity.
It is hard to believe, without reviewing his career, that Ledger was only known to the U.S. since 1999 (in essence, an eight-year career). The first film I saw him in was The Patriot, from 2000 (while he did some teen-theme films in 1999, Australian- and American-made). I was impressed with him in that and in Ned Kelly (which, all told, was not a great movie, but I found him great in it), and admired his daring in taking on the very uncomfortable (to me) and taboo subject of Brokeback Mountain, and other films or characters that I have not even been able to watch yet. That I have not sat through the whole film yet does not mean I do not appreciate it. I cannot count the number of films I have not seen that I would like to.
I did not know much of his work, really, but I understood he was good at his craft, even though there was A Knight's Tale. Not a favorite of mine.
It has been reported that Ledger was suffering sleeplessness, and it was also suggested that he had been struggling with depression. His family rejected his death being anything but an accident. Heath Ledger seemed intent on being seen as an artist, longing to be less of a celebrity and known more for his creativity. By reputation only, his work in movies such as Monster's Ball, Brokeback Mountain and more obscure works (such as Ned Kelly) suggests a willingness to go to extremes as an actor. He was among the many Bob Dylans fashioned for the 2007 biopic I'm Not There, too.
Ledger was a young talent who was snuffed out while his career was moving at high speed, rather than slowly coming to a stop. It is always saddening to learn of someone so talented and hard-working so abruptly losing their battle with this life. Tragically, in Ledger's case, because he was having a hard time sleeping (it appears).
The Washington Post offered a satisfying look at Ledger's career, including attention to one of his films that was lesser known in the U.S., but an enjoyable piece of tragedy: Ned Kelly. Here are some portions of that article, which appeared in the Jan 23 issue of the Post (click to see whole story).
I close this note with a paragraph from a Boston Globe writer, who explains Ledger's work in Brokeback the way any actor would hope to have a great dramatic work described. (Feel free to share this with friends and family, if you'd like.)
Heath Ledger Dies
Oscar Nominee Found In His N.Y. Apartment; Autopsy Set for Today
By Adam Bernstein and David Segal, Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 23, 2008; Page C01
Heath Ledger, 28, an Australian-born actor of considerable charm and dramatic dexterity who earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for playing a sexually conflicted cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," was found dead yesterday in New York.
A brooding blond with a deep voice, Ledger initially excelled as a teen heartthrob in movies such as "A Knight's Tale" (2001) and "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999).
He also had a supporting role as Mel Gibson's rebellious son in "The Patriot" (2000), set during the Revolutionary War, and returned to costume drama as a 19th-century British soldier who tries to undo a tarnish of cowardice in "The Four Feathers" (2002).
Ledger expressed boredom with such fanciful parts and sought more nuanced roles -- as the suicidal son of a racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) in "Monster's Ball" (2001) and as one of the half-dozen actors playing versions of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes's "I'm Not There" (2007). He played Dylan as a philandering hipster in a cast that included Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Richard Gere.
But it was director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) that cemented Ledger's reputation after years in the front rank of promising young stars. He played Ennis Del Mar, a lonely and laconic ranch hand whose affair with a rodeo rider (Jake Gyllenhaal) in 1963 sparks a lifelong passion.
Critic Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times that "Ledger brings this film alive by going so deeply into his character you wonder if he'll be able to come back," and said the film "could not have succeeded without it."
As best as possible, he tried to reject the industry's efforts to make him a hunky teen idol. He expressed concern about being typecast in heroic parts and returned to Australia to make the small-budget dark comedy "Two Hands" (1999), as a young man who stumbles into organized crime.
He spoke with resentment about how Columbia Pictures tried to lure him into the title role of its big-budget adventure film "Spider-Man" (2002). The part went to Tobey Maguire.
"I was their investment," Ledger said of Columbia. "They saw me and they invested money in me in 'The Patriot' and said, 'Okay, let's pop him out in that, let's get another product, and let's bring in the bucks.'
Director Gregor Jordan, who had earlier directed Ledger in "Two Hands," cast him as the eponymous 19th-century Australian outlaw in "Ned Kelly" (2003). His decision to return to Australia and accept a $50,000 paycheck for "Ned Kelly" -- a $2.5 million cut from his Hollywood salary -- was viewed as an example of his dedication to craft over ego.
At his death, Ledger had recently completed playing the villainous Joker in director Christopher Nolan's Batman movie "The Dark Knight."
Ledger told the New York Times he interpreted the Joker as a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy," far different from Jack Nicholson's earlier performance as the same character.
Ledger was self-taught and often castigated himself in interviews about his perceived shortcomings as a performer. "I feel the same way about everything I do," he said last year. "The day I say 'It's good' is the day I should start doing something else."
Ledger had a daughter, Matilda, with actress Michelle Williams, who played his wife in "Brokeback Mountain." The couple separated last year.
Heath Ledger left an intense legacy
Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
[Heath Ledger's] tightly coiled, devastatingly emotional performance [in Brokeback Mountain] was heroic. More than one critic called it the stuff of legend. His achievement in that film was to find a way to dramatize the personal terror of feeling something you don't understand. Loneliness radiated from him like heat. He gave us the torture of self-loathing, but he never took the part over the top. It was the wordless humanity he gave to Ennis that makes the performance great.
- Jonny O
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