With Trevor DiCarlo, his best friend since the age of three, Ledger drove across Australia from Perth to Sydney, returning to Perth to take a small role in Clowning Around (1992), the first part of a two-part television series, and to work on the TV series Sweat (1996), in which he played a cyclist. Acting career 1990sĪfter sitting for early graduation exams at age 16 to get his diploma, Ledger left school to pursue an acting career. 1996), his father's daughter with his second wife Emma Brown. 1990), his mother's daughter with her second husband and his stepfather Roger Bell, and Olivia Ledger (b. Ledger's two half-sisters are Ashleigh Bell (b. 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. His parents separated when he was ten and divorced when he was eleven. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age ten. He had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather.
Heath Andrew Ledger was born on 4 April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally Ramshaw, a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a racing car driver and mining engineer whose family established and owned the Ledger Engineering Foundry. Ledger also received numerous posthumous awards for his work on The Dark Knight, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. His performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight earned him universal acclaim and popularity from fans and critics alike.
His death affected the subsequent promotion of The Dark Knight. At the time of his death, The Dark Knight was in post-production, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he was playing his last role as Tony, was in the midst of filming. A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Ledger died on 22 January 2008 as a result of an accidental overdose of medications. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona. 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.
He was nominated for the BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the eighth-youngest nominee in the category at that time. įor his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the Best International Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute he was the first actor to win the latter award posthumously. He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director. His work consisted of twenty films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), the latter two being posthumous releases. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career further. Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director.