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overdosed intentionally.

Australian Ledger was born in Perth on April 4th 1979 to parents Kim and Sally. He was named after Emily Bronte's smouldering Wuthering Heights anti-hero Heathcliff, and first saw his career take off in Aussie soap Home and Away. Moving to America at the age of 20, he scored a big hit with the clever high school comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, and then again with hilarious medieval rock opera A Knight's Tale. Shortly afterwards, like Johnny Depp before him, Ledger made a conscious decision to extricate himself from one-dimensional pretty boy roles.

His reputation as a gifted, versatile young actor was hard earned by determined work in a varied and prolific amount of films. This led to the performance for which he will perhaps be most keenly remembered, as Ennis del Mar in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. This sensitive portrayal of a love affair between two cowboys gave Ledger the chance to truly stretch his acting ability. The painful, emotional journey Ledger was able to portray garnered him his first academy award nomination. Surely it would not have been his last, but for his unfortunate death.

Ledger followed Brokeback Mountain with another feted performance as one of six actors playing Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. His career had been set to follow a new and interesting trajectory this summer with his appearance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's second Batman film The Dark Knight. Reportedly, Ledger's performance brings a twitching, nervous energy to the Joker befitting the dark vision of Nolan's Gotham city.

It remains to be seen whether Terry Gilliam will complete The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus without Ledger, but supposedly he intends to try using CGI . Gilliam hopes to dedicate the completed film to Heath.

As heart-breaking as it is, Heath Ledger's overdose would appear to be nothing but an appalling accident. I would definitely like to think this is true. Ledger has left behind a beautiful little girl, Matilda, whom he loved dearly, and missed intensely when he was working away. Matilda's mother, actress Michelle Williams, met Heath when they filmed Brokeback Mountain together in 2005. Their romance was a whirlwind affair, and even though it faltered, there was no public animosity between them. Heath was as noble in life as he was in that poignant movie.

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