Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger: Dead at 28

Heath Ledger first hit it big in 2000's The Patriot. This was around the same time our site was launched. He was one of the premiere actors of the new century and threemoviebuffs covered most of his career.

Ledger playing Mel Gibson's son in The Patriot was a natural fit. As Gabriel, Ledger stole many scenes from Gibson. Gabriel rebelled against his father with a clash of ideology. Although this movie took place more than 200 hundred years ago, the parent/child conflict spoke to all generations. He demonstrated that most coveted of movie star qualities, charm. The scene where he courts his fiancé and she plays a joke on him which results in a goofy smile is the brightest spot in a movie filled with tragedy. With this role, Ledger demonstrated to the world that he was an actor that could play any part. The Patriot put Ledger in high demand. The following year he would make one of the most entertaining movie of the year, A Knight's Tale as well as one of the most critically acclaimed films, Monster's Ball.

Ledger strove to not be pigeon holed as an actor. He has often been quoted about how he turned down roles until he got the ones he liked. In an interview with Stephen Applebaum for bbc.co.uk, Ledger described his criteria in choosing a role, "As long as it scares me, as long as it's something new, as long as I get to scare other people... I don't know, as long as I get to evolve and grow as an actor and as a person, that's the stuff I'm after." Judging from the menacing previews of this summer's Batman movie, The Dark Knight, Ledger has at least one more movie role waiting to scare the public.

Ledger's career was not all awards and success. He made as many bombs as box office hits. The Four Feathers was one of threemoviebuffs worst movies ever reviewed. Still, he seemed to be a man who did things on his terms and appeared, at least from a distance, to have it all. In 2006, after the birth of his daughter, whom he had with actress Michelle Williams, I was inspired to write an article about a man who seemed to have it all.

Although Ledger played a variety of roles he may always be remembered as Ennis in Brokeback Mountain. In the same interview with Applebaum, Ledger explained what attracted him to his Oscar nominated role, "...the character of Ennis really struck a chord with me. His battle with his genetic make up, what had been passed down to him from his father and his father's father, and their beliefs and their traditions, he was fighting against all that; he was a homophobic man who loved women and men, and I found his contradictions really interesting."

I likewise find Ledger's contradictions interesting. Here was a man whose career was about being in front of a camera for people to see him, yet he shunned the spotlight. He rarely made the gossip pages. He wanted good roles but not the fame that they would create for him. His early death, at 28, may very well give him more fame than anything he ever did on screen. He now joins the ranks of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and River Phoenix as an actor who died young with so much potential still in them.