Why I’m Thrown off By Health Ledger’s Death
Celebrities OD-ing on drugs—prescription or otherwise—is a not a new phenomenon to Hollywood. Elvis, River Phoenix, in addition to numerous others are a case in point, whose death left a tangible hole in the world of Showbiz.
But they are long dead, distant memories, stars that have been immortalised on account of their young passing. But when Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment in New York on January 22, it somehow hurt more … seemed more personal.
Ledger moved to Hollywood after a few years career in Australia starring in TV soaps and a film that brought him localised attention. In his Hollywood debut in 10 Things I Hate About you in 1999 he played a self assured and independent iconoclast paid to date the college’s hell raiser. He gained popularity with teenage age girls, most of whom looked at him as the pin-up poster of the unconventionally-cute-but-deep foreign student they all hoped to find and fall in love with. His rendition of Frankie Avalon’s I Love You Baby, sung over the PA system to Julia Stiles’ character made the song popular again many years after it had come out.
2001’s A Knights Tale portrayed the same comic, humours and light side of Ledger. Playing a down and out peasant squire with dreams of winning a prominent jousting competition – open only to ‘real’ knights – Ledger wins audiences with his quirky humour by playing the underdog who wins the girl and the money.
But Ledger didn’t just stick to one genre. He diversified his choices of roles, playing edgier and more complex characters. He starred alongside Mel Gibson in 2000’s The Patriot holding his own against the veteran actor as his headstrong but courageous son. In 2001 he starred alongside Halle Berry in the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball and in 2002 he appeared in the remake of Zoltan Korda’s 1939 version of Four Feathers—a book by A.E.W Mason.
Showing reasonable talent — enough to take him through the summer movies riding the blockbuster wave — it was only with Brokeback Mountain that Ledger submerged himself into a character that crossed the definitions of gender and time to emerge as a universal comment on the nature and depth of real love. With Brokeback he entered a revered list of Hollywood actors who on taking taboo and unconventional roles break the mould and win accolades. It helped that his character was identifiable on more levels than just the ‘closet gay guy’. He was the man loved by many — wife and gay lover — neither of whom could break his wall to ‘get’ to him. He could be anyone. The husband you have lived with for years, whose reserve you still have been able to break, the uncommunicative friend.
He’ll be returning to the screen in a final adieu in 2008 reprising Jack Nicholson’s role as Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker. He seemed larger than life with his antics in 10 Things and A Knights Tale. Seems ironic that fate took his life when he was on the verge of going even bigger.
He was 28 years old when he died and 19 when he entered the glare of Hollywood’s spotlight. I was 19 when I first saw 10 Things I Hate About You. His exuberance, ear-to-ear lopsided grin and excitement personified the potential and hopes (in a strange way) of my generation. I grew up with him. His passing reminds me of not only the weaknesses of human life but also the power of failure and of endings. If in enduring lies our success, then in death Ledger failed—both himself and us.
But they are long dead, distant memories, stars that have been immortalised on account of their young passing. But when Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment in New York on January 22, it somehow hurt more … seemed more personal.
Ledger moved to Hollywood after a few years career in Australia starring in TV soaps and a film that brought him localised attention. In his Hollywood debut in 10 Things I Hate About you in 1999 he played a self assured and independent iconoclast paid to date the college’s hell raiser. He gained popularity with teenage age girls, most of whom looked at him as the pin-up poster of the unconventionally-cute-but-deep foreign student they all hoped to find and fall in love with. His rendition of Frankie Avalon’s I Love You Baby, sung over the PA system to Julia Stiles’ character made the song popular again many years after it had come out.
2001’s A Knights Tale portrayed the same comic, humours and light side of Ledger. Playing a down and out peasant squire with dreams of winning a prominent jousting competition – open only to ‘real’ knights – Ledger wins audiences with his quirky humour by playing the underdog who wins the girl and the money.
But Ledger didn’t just stick to one genre. He diversified his choices of roles, playing edgier and more complex characters. He starred alongside Mel Gibson in 2000’s The Patriot holding his own against the veteran actor as his headstrong but courageous son. In 2001 he starred alongside Halle Berry in the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball and in 2002 he appeared in the remake of Zoltan Korda’s 1939 version of Four Feathers—a book by A.E.W Mason.
Showing reasonable talent — enough to take him through the summer movies riding the blockbuster wave — it was only with Brokeback Mountain that Ledger submerged himself into a character that crossed the definitions of gender and time to emerge as a universal comment on the nature and depth of real love. With Brokeback he entered a revered list of Hollywood actors who on taking taboo and unconventional roles break the mould and win accolades. It helped that his character was identifiable on more levels than just the ‘closet gay guy’. He was the man loved by many — wife and gay lover — neither of whom could break his wall to ‘get’ to him. He could be anyone. The husband you have lived with for years, whose reserve you still have been able to break, the uncommunicative friend.
He’ll be returning to the screen in a final adieu in 2008 reprising Jack Nicholson’s role as Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker. He seemed larger than life with his antics in 10 Things and A Knights Tale. Seems ironic that fate took his life when he was on the verge of going even bigger.
He was 28 years old when he died and 19 when he entered the glare of Hollywood’s spotlight. I was 19 when I first saw 10 Things I Hate About You. His exuberance, ear-to-ear lopsided grin and excitement personified the potential and hopes (in a strange way) of my generation. I grew up with him. His passing reminds me of not only the weaknesses of human life but also the power of failure and of endings. If in enduring lies our success, then in death Ledger failed—both himself and us.
Comments
aye yam soo proud of you, bache!