October 18, 2012

  • Heath Ledger

    The book I read to research this post was Heath Ledger by John M McShane which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. Heath and his sister Cathy were named after the characters in Wuthering Heights. He spent his childhood in Perth which is a big city but very remote. His parents sent him to an exclusive boarding school. It was a kind of training ground for the armed forces and had cadets there. Heath wasn't interested. He excelled at sport in particular hockey. He had a choice of doing drama or continuing with hockey and chose hockey. He was just interested in drama and no idea he would do well at it. In his childhood he got quite a few prestigious acting jobs including a stint in Home & Away. When he went to America his first acting job was in a film called 10 Things I Hate About You which was a remake of The Taming of the Shrew. The plot was a woman who won't date being seduced by an australian and both falling in love with each other. It was quite a big hit and put him on the map. He went on to get a good role opposite Mel Gibson and he starred in A Knights Tale. Both big hits. For Brokeback Mountain he was one of the youngest actors ever nominated for an oscar. On the set he met Michelle Williams who was his screen wife and in real life they would have a romance and she had a baby girl by him. He died at the age of 28 in 2008. It's thought he died accidently from abusing prescription drugs. He had got valid prescriptions for the drugs. He was only the second actor ever to win a posthumous oscar which he did for playing the Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight.

oldscratbag

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