Heath Ledger Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 197922 January 2008) was an Australian actor and director. After performing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger left for the United States in 1998 to further develop his film career. His work comprised nineteen films, including "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999), "The Patriot" (2000), "A Knight's Tale" (2001), "Monster's Ball" (2001), "Lords of Dogtown" (2005), "Brokeback Mountain" (2005), "Casanova" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008), and "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009), the latter two being posthumous releases. He also produced and directed music videos and
Heath Ledger worked with the actor praised him for his creativity, seriousness and intuition. "I've never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents," "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan has written, expressing amazement over the actor's working process, genuine curiosity and charisma. Marc Forster, who directed Ledger in "Monster's Ball", complimented him as taking the job "very seriously", being disciplined, observant, and understanding and intuitive. In 2007, director Todd Haynes compared Ledger's presence to actor James Dean, casting Ledger as Robbie Clarke, a fictive personification of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There". Drawing on the similar characteristics between