Heath Ledger: A Mini Biography

Born Heathcliff Andrew Ledger on 4 April in 1979, the soon to be superstar actor began his life in the beachfront town of Perth, Australia. As a young boy he attended Mary's Mount Primary school where at the tender age of 10 he got his first acting role starring in a production of the classic Peter Pan. It was about this time that young Heath, a lover of the game of chess, won Western Australia’s Junior Chess Championship. Heath continued this passion and as an adult he often played the game at the famed Washington Square Park. Heath’s parents, Kim, a racecar driving engineer, and his mom Sally, a French teacher, divorced when he was just a young boy of 11. To some such an event can be experienced as a cataclysmic negative, but he took it all in stride and traversing between parents as a young child set up his vagabond style attitude he would carry with him throughout his short but eventful life. “I feel like I've been traveling with the same bag since I was 11.” Heath said in his famous Rolling Stone 2006 interview.

While growing up in Perth, he attended the all boys Guildford Grammar School. It was here that he excelled at the sport of field hockey and starred on the Kalamunda field hockey team, which featured his father Kim as its president. While the painfully shy Ledger was a featured player on the team and was well known locally as an accomplished athlete, it was drama that he eventually chose over sports.

As a young lad starring in school plays, his teachers and others around him noticed his gift for the craft, but likely due to jealousy, his classmates never gave him the credit he deserved. The budding actor was undaunted, however, and at just 16 years of age he decides to move to Sydney to pursue a professional acting career with his best friend Trevor. Having less than a dollar to his name, it was Heath's passion that allowed him to survive and thrive all on his own in a brand-new world.

The combination of Heath’s determination and his movie star quality good looks soon landed him his first major role. Heath played a gay cyclist in a short-lived but well known Australian TV series called Sweat. This role led him to be noticed by the producers of TV giant Fox and he was chosen for a lead in a fantasy series called Roar. Despite the high hopes of this innovative series, it failed to gain broad attention and only lasted for one season. It was just two years later in March of 1999 that he would make his break out appearance opposite actress Julia Stiles in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. (see filmography). While dismissed by many critics and moviegoers alike as just another simple teen movie, the impression that Heath Ledger made on the screen was undeniable and he was well on his way to movie super stardom.

While much has been written and is known about Heath's short-lived but incredibly impressive movie roles, because of his shy, soft-spoken nature not as much is known about the man himself. He was described as gentle and thoughtful by those that knew him best and rarely if any negative things were said about him. Heath was much less concerned about the pomp and circumstance that surrounded being a major movie star than he was about dedicating his life to the craft of acting. He took such aspects of the movie business as the paparazzi and the wild LA nightlife in stride and understood that it was all part of the process, but not the most important part. A quote Heath gave in the spring of 2001 gives some insight into this mindset, "Most of the time you don't even know they're there. Now, that's the scary thing. It's really strange and invading, but I'm still working it all out. I try to not let it bother me. I really try and find the humour in all of it. And if I want to swim naked in my pool, I'm still going to do it. I certainly don't want to feel that I have to change everything in my life that I do to cater to them. I just won't let it happen."

It seems such a shame that an individual with such talent, charisma, passion and goodwill toward others would leave us so early in his journey in life. There is no question that his premature death in the one of the reasons his name will continue to live on forever. But this is no solace for his friends and especially his family, including his young daughter Matilda, who at the tender age of two when her father died, may have no memory of him whatsoever. Thankfully for her and millions of us across the world, we only have to take a trip down to the local video store to watch this amazing man’s body of work to enjoy the gifts he gave us while he was here on earth.

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger: April 4th, 1979-January 22nd, 2008