It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since Heath Ledger passed away from an accidental overdose at his Soho apartment in Manhattan. The 28-year-old actor had just wrapped up portraying “Joker” in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and was filming Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus when his untimely death occurred.
After working as a struggling television actor in Australia, Ledger obtained his first prominent role in the 1997 Australian film Blackrock. He would secure his first American big screen role in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You starring alongside Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film was considered a “breakout success” for Stiles and Ledger; helping Ledger secure the supporting role in The Patriot starring Mel Gibson.
After his role as Gabriel Martin in The Patriot, Ledger starred in a variety of roles throughout the early 2000s; some of my favorites being jousting champion William Thatcher in 2001’s A Knight’s Tales, corrections officer Sonny Grotowski in 2001’s Monsters Ball, and legendary bushranger Ned Kelly in the 2003 Australian film Ned Kelly.
It wouldn’t be until 2005 that Heath Ledger would begin to receive the recognition he deserved from critics and the Academy. After a stellar performance as Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, Ledger began to receive international acclaim. He would be nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Broadcast Film Critics Award, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for his role as Ennis Del Mar. Even though he didn’t win any of his major nominations, his next major role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight would sweep the competition.
Although he won numerous MTV Movie Awards and Australian Film Institute Awards throughout his life, it was not until after Ledger’s death that he finally got the recognition he deserved.
On July 18, 2008, almost six months to the date after his death, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight was released in theaters. Crowds of individuals stormed theaters to get the first look of Ledger as the evil villain The Joker. Audiences were simply astonished at Ledger’s dark, edgy and often humorous portrayal of the The Dark Knight‘s lead villain; leading to the film setting numerous box office records and earning over $1 billion worldwide. The film and Ledger’s role received outstanding reviews from critics and is often considered to be one of the best films of the 2000s, if not the best superhero film of all time.
Once awards season came around in late 2008, it was clear that Ledger was posthumously going to sweep his competition for over twenty awards. Heath Ledger would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; along with numerous other awards.
Sadly, Ledger was never able to see the fruits of his labor blossom into one of the most memorable roles in cinematic history. At the time of his death, he was busy filming Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a role often forgotten he played. Tony, his lead character in the film, was a mysterious outsider to a traveling theater troup whose leader had made a bet with the devil. The film takes audiences through “a magical mirror to explore their imaginations and present them with a choice between self-fulfilling enlightenment or gratifying ignorance.” Since his death occurred a third of the way through filming, the film was recast for certain scenes. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepped in to play “physically transformed versions” of Tony.
For me it’s still hard to believe that it has already been five years since we lost Heath Ledger. The young actor was beginning to earn the recognition he deserved and was nowhere near his prime. It would interesting to see which roles Heath Ledger would have portrayed if he where still alive today. Would have he played Texas Ranger LeBoeuf in 2010’s True Grit, Billy Beane in 2011’s Moneyball, or Freddie Quell in 2012’s The Master? We’ll never know.
One thing is for certain, like James Dean, John Belushi and River Phoenix before him, Heath Ledger’s life was cut tragically short before he could keep giving the gift he loved most; whisking audiences away into a world that made them laugh, cry, angry, and even challenge themselves to explore new ideologies they may have once shunned.
Thank you Heath Ledger for the gift you have given us in cinema. You are truly missed.
