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The actor, who became a legend after his death, would be 46 years old now.
All focus was on Heath Ledger, who then gave such a resounding answer with his performance that people have been singing odes to his acting ever since, and the Academy clearly expressed its admiration by awarding him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The tragedy of fate is that it was not he, but his family members who accepted the statue for the performance of his life in front of colleagues who were moved to tears. Yet, there was barely half a year left until the release of The Dark Knight when the news of Heath Ledger’s death spread around the world on January 22. The press immediately began to speculate, suspecting depression, drug overdose, and suicide, although according to his close acquaintances, friends, and family, there was no such thing. Legends began to spread that the Joker character was responsible for what happened, which may be partly true, but not necessarily in the way most people would think.
Ledger’s journey to Hollywood was not smooth, but we can’t speak of bad family circumstances or serious obstacles in his case. He simply decided that he wanted to be an actor, and after a few smaller roles, he got the lead role in 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999 , and not long after that in The Knight’s Tale . He was referred to as Hollywood’s new on-call handsome boy, whose qualities were limited by his romantic roles, which is why he was then called a character actor. He did everything he could to break out of the box, and it’s incredible that he didn’t have his big breakthrough. As a dedicated actor, he was able to lock himself in a room for weeks to really immerse himself in his new character. As the Joker, he even kept a diary, which he simply called Joker’s Diary. The mystery surrounding his death was further fueled by a small book filled with comic book pages and Joker cards, the last page of which read “bye-bye”.
After the diary was made public, many people clarified that he had taken his own life, although in fact there was no mention of drugs, alcohol or depression caused by the role. Ledger’s thoughts were constantly racing in his head, and he tried to extend his two hours of sleep a day with prescription sleeping pills, so he took more and more of various preparations. “My body was exhausted, but my brain couldn’t stop,” the restless actor said shortly before his death. Toxicology tests showed that none of the drugs were illegal, and none of them were in his blood above the legal limit, but his body could not cope with the six types of sleeping pills with different active ingredients. His widow, Michelle Williams, has not been able to put an end to the speculation that has been going on since then, despite repeatedly stating that her husband would never have been able to give up their daughter, Matilda. Whatever the case, a great actor passed away 17 years ago, who would have deserved the recognition he received during his lifetime, which unfortunately he only received after his death.
Click through our gallery, where we recall 10 memorable performances by Heath Ledger!
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