HQ photos of male celebrities

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Continue Viewing »

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979–January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including Ten Things I Hate about You, The Patriot, Monster’s Ball, A Knight’s Tale and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of the Joker in the forthcoming The Dark Knight.

At sixteen, Ledger sat for early graduation exams, and left school to pursue an acting career. With his best friend, Trevor DiCarlo, Ledger made the cross-country drive to Sydney. He returned to Perth for the TV series Sweat (1996), in which he played a gay cyclist. In 1996, prior to his film debut in the 1997 Australian movie Blackrock, Ledger was involved in the short lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama Roar. In 1999, Ledger starred in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and also had the lead role in the acclaimed Australian movie Two Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan.

From 2000 to 2005, he starred in The Patriot, Monster’s Ball, A Knight’s Tale, The Four Feathers, Ned Kelly, The Order, and The Brothers Grimm. In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award for the Male Star of Tomorrow based on his performance in The Patriot, and worldwide release of A Knight’s Tale. In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ’s Men of the Year for acting.

Ledger received “Best Actor of 2005″ awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his acclaimed performance in Brokeback Mountain, in which he plays Wyoming ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, who has a love affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He also received a nomination for Golden Globe Best Actor in a Drama and a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for this performance. In the New York Times review of the film, critic Stephen Holden wrote:

Both Mr. Ledger and Mr. Gyllenhaal make this anguished love story physically palpable. Mr. Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean, sinewy character. It is a screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn.

In another review in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote:

Ledger’s magnificent performance is an acting miracle. He seems to tear it from his insides. Ledger doesn’t just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens; he knows how he breathes. To see him inhale the scent of a shirt hanging in Jack’s closet is to take measure of the pain of love lost.

Also in 2005, Ledger played a fictionalised version of Giacomo Casanova in Casanova. The film, a romantic comedy which co-starred Sienna Miller, drew mixed reviews from critics and failed to find a significant audience among general moviegoers.

In 2006, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2007, he was one of six actors to portray different sides of singer Bob Dylan in the film I’m Not There.

Ledger played iconic comic book villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, opposite fellow I’m Not There star Christian Bale. The film is set to debut on July 18, 2008. Since The Dark Knight was in post-production at the time of Ledger’s death, the film itself will be unchanged, although the viral marketing campaign that centered around Ledger’s character may be affected.

The film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he had been cast in a major supporting role, was in production at the time of his death.

He was working with Scottish writer/producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, which would have been his first feature as a director.

Continue Viewing »