Film I'm usually fairly unshockable (well that could be open to debate but for the purposes of what I'm writing about I'm usually fairly unshockable) but when I heard about this in work earlier today having not paid attention to the news last night (I was reading a book) I didn't believe it. Until I reached for a search engine and saw it in black and white and red. Since I don't usually follow the lifestyles of the rich and famous, these kinds of things are always surprising, but doubly in the case of Ledger since as far as I knew his lifestyle was fairly stable.
Heath was someone whose time had nearly come. Having shown great charisma in the likes of A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You, he quickly shifted from simply being a leading man into becoming a well respected actor. With the odd exception, rather than taking the clear leading man roles he'd always be cast in more character based work.
Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There are the kind of quirky things the likes of Brad Pitt fit in with their other starrier work. For Ledger they were his career. I've been a fan of his because of that -- when an actor doesn't seem to be appearing in every film you see it makes their fewer appearances more special somehow. The Dark Knight was probably going to really make him a household name. Seems now everyone knows his name but for completely the wrong reason. Shame.
Update: Joe Queenan had a wonderfully eloquent article in today's The Guardian explaining what we've lost.
So true. I absolutely agree with everything you've just said. Heath Ledger was a very talaneted actor who will be remembered in the wrong way. As far as his role in The Dark Knight, he could have been a definate main stream actor...
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