He was the feisty, rough and ready boy made good from Perth. At 16, a determined Heath Andrew Ledger knew school wasn’t for him. He packed his bags and high-tailed it to Sydney to pursue the bright lights and the big screen. All he wanted was to act.
The son of Kim, an engineer who designed race cars, and Sally, a French teacher, Heath always said his parents’ marriage bust-up when he was just 11, had set him on a creative path.
“It set me up for this bohemian life I’ve been leading,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2006.
But Heath had more than stars in his eyes, his dream of success was backed up with highly noticeable talent.
He never went to acting school, his acting was instinctive.
“What was noticeable about him was he was concentrated, very quiet, and you could see that he was really observant of other people,” John Rapsey, the writer of ABC teen series Sweat, said of Heath after he turned in a stirring performance playing a gay cyclist in one of his first professional roles in 1996.
Casting agents couldn’t help but notice his surfy blonde locks and athletic build. He became an instant heartthrob playing the lead in Fox’s fantasy warrior drama Roar, and proved himself very much a ladies man by dating his co-star Lisa Zane (actor Billy Zane’s sister) who was 18 years his senior.
Having made his big screen debut in Australian movie Blackrock, Heath decided to try his luck in Hollywood.
Again he found himself wearing the ‘hunky heartthrob’ badge in the hit teen comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You, in which he starred alongside Julia Stiles, but Heath yearned for projects that would stretch him as an actor. He didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a mere teen poster boy. He got his wish, taking the lead in the acclaimed Australian movie, Two Hands.
It was Mel Gibson who picked up on Heath’s brooding intensity while scouting for someone to play his son in the revolutionary epic, The Patriot.
“He possessed the unknown factor that sort of lights up the screen,” Gibson said. “I had such great hope for him.”
The movie was a smash, the critics raved about Heath, and his star power was confirmed with him landing on the cover of Vanity Fair with the headline, ‘We’re Havin’ A Heath Wave.’
A Knight’s Tale saw Heath bloom as a Hollywood leading man. Filmed on location in Prague, he lost his heart to another older woman, the stunning Heather Graham.
Intensely private, Heath never understood the media’s fascination with his private life. But as his star continued to rise and he fell in and out of love, the paparazzi were always there.
He fell in love with his Ned Kelly co-star — again an older woman, this time 11 years older — fellow Australian Naomi Watts. Their two-year on again, off again fling was played out in the glare of flashbulbs. Heath’s loathing of media scrutiny intensified.
Throughout his career, Heath’s focus, passion, and dedication to the craft of acting often saw him being compared to a young Marlon Brando. For him, it was the ultimate compliment.
The Brando comparisons were universal with Heath’s tortured portrayal of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. His standout performance saw him receive Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. He didn’t win the Oscar, but he won co-star Michelle Williams. The smitten pair set up house and had a baby together, Matilda Rose Ledger, born on October 28, 2005 in Brooklyn, New York.
“It really is quite profound to what extent this film has changed my life,” Heath said in 2006. “Brokeback Mountain has given me two beautiful girls who I fall deeper and deeper in love with daily. It’s given me Brooklyn, a city I adore, it’s just enlightened nearly every aspect of my life.”
Unfortunately it was at the Australian premiere of Brokeback Mountain in Sydney, that Heath’s troubled relationship with the paparazzi reached its lowest point.
While walking the red carpet at Fox Studios, Heath and Michelle were given a thorough drenching, when photographers turned on them with high powered water pistols. The prank was said to be payback for Heath’s alleged bad treatment of the paps.
The humiliating incident obviously upset the young star and inflamed his hatred for media intrusion. He sold up his Bronte beachside mansion and left Australia.
Sadly, Heath and Michelle ended their relationship in September 2007. The relationship may have soured, but Heath’s love for his little girl only grew stronger. He was often spotted contentedly pushing Matilda in a stroller through the streets of Brooklyn.
“Fatherhood has changed me as an artist because I feel things on a deeper level. I think my performances will grow simultaneously,” he said.
As many of his acting colleagues have testified, we were yet to see the most remarkable of Heath’s acting. His portrayal of the Joker in yet to be released Batman — The Dark Knight, has critics raving.
“I tell you the big surprise in the new Batman — Heath Ledger as the Joker,” Michael Caine told the New York press. “Heath is like the most murderous psychopath you’ve ever seen on the screen.”
Ironically it was the arrival of daughter Matilda that made Heath comfortable with the notion of dying.
“I feel good about dying now because I feel like I’m alive in her,” he recently said. “But at the same time you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the rest of her life.”
Judging by the outpouring of grief from family, friends and colleagues, there are a lot of people who wish Heath Ledger could have stayed around a little bit longer.
Words: Glen Williams
Read more tributes to Heath in Woman’s Day (on-sale January 28, 2008)
Plus, more about the events that lead to his tragic death.
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