Some facts about actor Heath Ledger who was found dead in his Manhattan apartment.
- Ledger, 28, was nominated for an Academy Award as best lead actor for his role as a gay cowboy in 2005's Brokeback Mountain, but the Oscar went to Philip Seymour Hoffman for his role as Truman Capote. Ledger won a New York Film Critics Circle award for the role.
- Ledger said Brokebac" was the first "proper" love story he had played. "I find there's not a lot of mystery left in stories between guys and girls; it's all been done or seen before," he said. Ledger also said the role gave him the opportunity to mature.
- In 2007 he broke up with his longtime companion, actress Michelle Williams, who played his wife in Brokeback and was the real-life mother of the actor's 2-year-old daughter, Matilda.
- He was due to appear this year as The Joker in the next Batman film, The Dark Knight.
- Ledger was already well-known in his native Australia when he was introduced to US audiences as the young star of the television series Roar in 1997 and quickly became one of Hollywood's more prominent leading men.
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