Heath Ledger was named after Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights,
and at times he was as brooding and intense as the character in the
Emily Bronte novel.
But Ledger had an "unknown factor" which lit up the screen, actor
and mentor Mel Gibson once said.
Ledger could be brilliant, and earned an Oscar nomination as a gay
cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, but the young heartthrob also made
some questionable choices of roles in a high-profile movie career
which began in 1999.
The Perth-born actor, dead at 28 from what New York police suspect
may be a drug overdose, also earned critical acclaim for his role
as a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian movie Candy.
Despite his talent and early success, Ledger had an uneasy
relationship with the media.
In 2004 he allegedly spat at and assaulted a photographer in
Sydney, apparently in retaliation for paparazzi squirting him with
water on the red carpet for Brokeback Mountain.
At one stage Ledger was living in Sydney, where he bought a luxury
home overlooking Bronte Beach, but moved to the United States
because he said he was being pestered by paparazzi.
He then lived in Hollywood and New York with actress and fiancee
Michelle Williams and their two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, but
the couple split in September last year.
He had since been linked to Australian supermodel Gemma Ward, after
they were seen together over the Christmas holidays.
Ledger was born on April 4, 1979 in Perth to parents Sally Ledger
Bell, a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a race car driver and
mining engineer.
He left school at 16 and moved to Sydney to pursue an acting
career.
After some small parts in Australian productions, Ledger broke
through in 1999 with starring roles in the Hollywood teen comedy 10
Things I Hate About You and the acclaimed Australian movie Two
Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan.
He went on to star alongside Mel Gibson in The Patriot in 2000 and
A Knight's Tale in 2001.
Ledger seemed positioned as the next "it" boy after such box office
hits, but opted for a change of direction with roles in Monster's
Ball, The Four Feathers and Ned Kelly.
The highlight of his career came in 2005 with his best actor Oscar
nomination for Brokeback Mountain, during which he met Williams,
his co-star.
His portrayal of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar also earned Golden Globe,
BAFTA and SAG Award nominations.
Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee hailed Ledger's performance as
a "miracle" of acting, reminiscent of a young Marlon Brando.
Ledger's first acting role was as a homosexual athlete in
little-known Australian TV soap opera Sweat in 1996. He played a
gay cyclist in the teen soap, set at the Western Australian
Institute of Sport and which portrayed the lives of Olympic
hopefuls.
The creator and writer of the series, John Rapsey, said it was
clear even then that Ledger, then a 16-year-old sports champion and
high school dropout, possessed an unusual talent.
"He himself had absolutely no problem playing the role. He handled
all of that with great aplomb," Rapsey told AFP.
"What was noticeable about him was he was concentrated, very quiet,
and you could see that he was really observant of other
people."
Ledger, who never attended acting school, credited his instincts
with his success.
"The one thing that's got me to where I'm sitting is my instincts,
you know, and I'm impatient. I didn't want to wait for years to
work. I wanted to just get out there and do it," he said in an
interview with an Australian television program in 2001.
After leaving Sydney for Hollywood at the age of 19, Ledger's
standout talent was spotted by Mel Gibson when auditioning 500
actors for the role of his son in The Patriot. The casting was
Ledger's first Hollywood break and led to his leading role in A
Knight's Tale.
Ledger continued his steady impact on Hollywood, with a small role
in Monster's Ball (2001), followed by the lead in the lightweight
The Four Feathers (2002), Australian drama Ned Kelly (2003) and The
Brothers Grimm (2005).
This month, Ledger had been working on his latest movie, The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam, which
was due to be released next year. He also portrayed The Joker in a
Batman movie called Dark Knight to be released later this year.
