On 22 January 2008, Heath Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment. He was 28 years old.

The news rippled around the globe, with many media outlets speculating as to how and why the actor, months away from the release of the film that would define his career, was taken from us so young.

Ten years on from his death, caused by an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, Ledger stands among the kind of legendary tragic icons Hollywood built it’s name on.

Like Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Lee, and James Dean, Ledger died too young and at the height of his popularity. Also like those figures, it’s almost impossible to look at his work and not wonder about the artist that might have been.




As an actor, Ledger seemed fearless. Making his Hollywood breakthrough at 20 with 10 Things I Hate About You, the Australian shunned more commercially friendly roles in favour of gritty dramas. In the early 2000’s he played two troubled sons, to Mel Gibson in The Patriot and then to Billy Bob Thornton in the Oscar-winning Monsters Ball.

Even in 2001’s A Knight’s Tale, a quirky medieval action-comedy with a rock soundtrack, Ledger’s performance as a knight seeking to ‘change his stars’ seem to possess something extra. There were certainly missteps, such as Brothers Grimm or Four Feathers, but a hit was never far away.

Performances like skate pioneer Skip Engblom in Lords of Dogtown showed the playful nature of his talents, which often suited quirkier roles.

Then there was Brokeback Mountain.

Heath Ledger AND Jake Gyllenhaal appeared together in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (Picture: Focus Features)

Dismissed and lambasted by conservative critics as ‘The Gay Cowboy Movie’, Ang Lee’s romantic drama challenged perceptions and, for the time, was an incredibly bold move for an actor only six years into his Hollywood career. The gamble paid off, however, when both Ledger and co-star Jake Gyllenhaal cemented themselves as leading men of substance – layered actors, not shallow movie stars.

When talking about Ledger after his death, Daniel Day Lewis called him ‘unique’ and ‘perfect’ in the film.

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That would never be more evident than in his most famous performance, as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. As incredible as it may seem now, Ledger was not a popular choice when he was announced back in 2006.

Homophobic comments (relating to his role in Brokeback Mountain) filled up message boards and Warner Bros were bombarded with hate mail. Nevertheless, Ledger continued to be fearless and went about reinventing the role, cementing a place in movie history.

Heath Ledger with Christian Bale’s Batman (Picture: WB)

Living alone in a hotel room for a month, Ledger studied everything from serial killers to rock stars to perfect the walk, look, and voice of his character. He kept a diary of what the Clown Prince of Crime might be thinking, what his motivations may be.

He clipped disturbing images of clowns or characters such as Alex from A Clockwork Orange to refine his performance. The research translated into breathtaking reality on-screen. Scenes such as the opening bank heist, or the police station interrogation underlined what his performance was about.



This wasn’t a character that was just make-up and a scary laugh. The Joker of this film had no goal other than reducing society to chaos. As Sir Michael Caine’s Alfred put it, he just wanted ‘to watch the world burn’.

Anarchic, charming, philosophical, this was the darkest take on the character that had ever been attempted outside of the comic books, and every frame was compelling.

The film was a hit, but beyond that Ledger’s performance became a pop culture landmark. The character appeared on t-shirts, in graffiti, the band Kasabian referenced him in their song Vlad The Impaler. Even The Academy, an organisation that rarely favours blockbusters, gave Ledger a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts.

Before The Dark Knight, it was hard for many people to see anyone else but Jack Nicholson as The Joker. From 2008 to today, that image has been replaced by Ledger’s performance.

Was Ledger a brilliant talent that was destined to burn out quickly? (Picture: Rex)

So, what does it all mean? Was Ledger a brilliant talent that was destined to burn out quickly? The answer is categorically no, because while we are left with an incredible body of work, there is a greater sense of wondering what might have come after the success of The Dark Knight.

What would it have lead to? What kind of actor would Ledger have become in his 30’s, 40’s and beyond?

It’s impossible to know, but it’s fair to guess that he may have continued on his path of choosing interesting roles, whether they were in mega-budget superhero films or tiny indie gems. You can look to actors of similar ages such as Leonardo DiCaprio, who used his success to carve out a unique career, or Ledger’s Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, who dabbled with blockbusters before becoming an exciting dramatic actor in films like Nightcrawler and Nocturnal Animals, for an idea of where he might have gone, but perhaps it’s best to look to the man himself.


An actor always uncomfortable with fame (he turned down a few blockbuster roles, including Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man), one can only imagine the daring projects he might have made had he lived to benefit from the prestige the role of The Joker brought him.

As he famously said in a 2007 interview, ‘I feel like I’m wasting time if I repeat myself’, and so while his sister has been on record saying he wanted to reprise his role as The Joker, it’s likely a completely different side to his repertoire would have come from future films.

One thing we would have definitely seen would have been Heath Ledger as a film maker, as at the time of his death he was in the early stages of preparing his directorial debut, chess drama The Queen’s Gambit, which would have co-starred Ellen Page.

While his Hollywood career lasted less than a decade, Heath Ledger’s death has left an impression on our culture that echoes to this day.

While no amount of cinema footage can make up for the loss of a young, creative human being, fans old and new can look back on his work and find inspiration in an actor that remained fearless from the beginning to the end of his remarkable, yet tragically short career.

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