Heath Ledger

We first watched Heathcliff Andrew Ledger in the Mel Gibson film, “The Patriot.” And also in “Four Feathers” which one of my favorite movies as it epitomizes a strong friendship. That was many years ago. And he probably became even more popular in the award winning Ang Lee film “Brokeback Mountain.” And that movie, we never really got to watch. Maybe, now with the death of Heath Ledger, we will finally get to see that movie.

But before that we will definitely see his presence at the Joker in the latest Batman flick, “The Dark Night.”

The Academy Award-nominated Australian actor was born on April 4, 1979 and died yesterday in his apartment in the upscale SOHO district. I was telling Cecile that we were in that area during our recent trip to the States last December 2007.

Here are a few interesting trivia from Wikipedia about Heath’s short presence in this world. His name and his sister, Kate were named after the two main characters in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine. At age 10, Peter Pan was his first acting experiences was in a school production.

In 1996, he already played a gay role in an Australian TV series called “Sweat.”

From August 2002 to April 2004, Ledger had a relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of “Ned Kelly.”

On the set of “Brokeback Mountain,” Ledger met actress Michelle Williams, whom he met on the set of Brokeback Mountain. Their daughter, Matilda Rose, was born on October 28, 2005 in New York City.

Did you know that Ledger had aspirations to become a film director? In 2006, Ledger directed three music videos and during a news conference at the Venice Film Festival in 2007, he spoke of his desire to make a film about the British troubadour Nick Drake who died tragically young at the age of 26 in 1974. As a first step, he created and appeared in a short film set to Drake's recording of his 1974 song about depression titled "Black Eyed Dog".

In 2007, he was one of six actors to portray different sides of singer Bob Dylan in the film “I'm Not There.”

On July 18, 2008, Ledger will his presence felt as the iconic comic book villain The Joker in “The Dark Knight.” This is the sequel to the 2005 film “Batman Begins,” opposite fellow “I'm Not There” star Christian Bale.

We will surely watch "The Dark Knight."