"This thing grabs hold of us again, in the wrong place,the wrong time, and we're dead."
-Heath Ledger
as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain
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This reminds me of the death of the beautifully named River Phoenix. After giving us Ennis Del Mar in the ground-breaking Brokeback Mountain, and having the gall to take on a role that already carried the inimitable stamp of Jack Nicholson - The Joker - in the next Batman film, Heath Ledger was on the cusp of greater fame. His best, really, was yet to come. 2 years ago, Ledger attended the Oscar ceremony with his Brokeback co-star, Michelle Williams, the mother of the very young child he now leaves behind. He parted ways with Williams only months ago. At the Oscars, Ledger had 
been nominated for Best Actor for Brokeback Mountain. His portrayal in the film was described as a "career defining role". That career will not now happen. This year's Academy Awards nominations were announced only earlier today. Next month - if the writers' strike allows the Oscar Ceremony to go ahead - Heath Ledger's face and name will be on the roll call of Hollywood's recently departed. And being only 28, his will be an unkind cut indeed.
Overdose or Suicide? The yarn will spin now and forever more. Ask James Dean.
I wasn't even particularly a fan of Heath Ledger, though I loved Brokeback Mountain. Nor was I into his brand of 'good looks'.
It just grieves me to see potential unrealised, promise denied, talent wasted.
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5 comments:
Yes, very tragic. I was shocked. I had to think about it and process it. He will be greatly missed. I have a post about him as well as the crisis in Congo
http://afropolitans.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/heath-ledger-an.html
Poor him. It is so sad for him to go that way...talent wasted...a life wasted. May his soul rest in peace, his movies will certainly live on.
So true. When I read of Heath Ledger's passing, I was reminded of the popular Hausa actor Ahmad S. Nuhu's death last year about this time. There's something about the death of a young actor that makes one brood for a while. To see that young so-familiar face laugh and smile and die over and over again, and yet to be aware that the presence on the screen is no longer there. The image becomes a ghost of sorts. The feeling is that of vertigo--of absence--revealing a part of our imagination that is suddenly gone.
nothing further to add to all the beautiful words above - i'm still brooding, as talatu-carmen so aptly put it. this sort of loss really brings on the melancholy - he was much too young to go.
True, Frances. Yes, I remember reading something Talatu-Carmen wrote, comparing Heath to a Hausa actor that died last year... That connection, and the placing side-by-side in significance with the death of an otherwise 'unknown' actor back home (Ahmad S. Huhu), was poignant.
How interesting, that you once lived in the same neighbourhood as Heathcliff and his Michelle. They could have been another Brangelina. Goes to show; we never know where life is heading, except to the obvious, death, which in this case was much too soon.
May Heath rest. He did much with what little time was given to him.
February 01, 2008
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