Heath Ledger
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Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor. After playing roles in Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, he moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film career. His work consisted of 20 films in a variety of genres, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale, Monster's Ball (both 2001), Casanova, Lords of Dogtown, Brokeback Mountain (all 2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), the latter two posthumously released. He produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director. For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, he received nominations for the BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2007, he played a fictional actor, Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Bob Dylan's life and persona in Todd Haynes's I'm Not There. Ledger was found dead in January 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. A few months before his death, he had finished filming his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight; the performance brought him praise and popularity, and numerous posthumous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and a Critics' Choice Award, all for Best Supporting Actor.