04:22 AM EDT 02/03/2010
Heath Ledger
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Jude Law Talks About Finishing Heath Ledger's Final Role
Originally posted 12/23/2009 01:20PM
Jude Law says he was humbled personally and professionally to be asked to help take over Heath Ledger's final movie role, which Ledger left unfinished when he died in January 2008.
"When I got the call, it was a double tug," Law says of joining the cast of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. "I liked Heath very much as a man and admired him as an actor. To help finish his final piece of work was a tribute I felt compelled to make."
Ledger was in the midst of filming the role of Tony in the fantasy film, directed by Terry Gilliam, when he died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in his New York apartment on Jan. 22, 2008, at age 28.
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger, Jude Law
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Jude Law to Judge Heath Ledger Scholarship
Originally posted 12/09/2009 09:25AM
When Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose before completing his final film, Jude Law stepped in to finish his role. Now he's stepped up to judge Ledger's namesake scholarship competition.
"I am delighted and honored to do what I can to keep Heath's legacy alive," Law, 36, says. "He was a brilliant actor and a wonderful man and it is only fitting that this scholarship has been developed in his name."
Law took over Ledger's role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus along with Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell after the actor's death of an accidental overdose last year.
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger, Jude Law
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Michelle Williams: Falling in Love Again Didn't Save Me
Originally posted 09/15/2009 06:20PM
For Michelle Williams, the pain from losing Heath Ledger hasn't gone away – it's just a different kind of hurt.
"After the first year, the pain is less intense; it's less immediate," Williams, 29, tells the October issue of Vogue. "But the magical thinking goes away too. And that's a whole new reckoning. But every time I really miss him and wonder where he's gone, I just look at her."
The actress is referring to their daughter Matilda, who was just 2 years old when Ledger died in January 2008 of an accidental drug overdose.
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams
VIDEO: Trailer for Heath Ledger's Final Film Released
Originally posted 08/11/2009 11:45AM
Heath Ledger was only part way through filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus when he died from an accidental drug overdose.
But instead of shelving the project, the film's intrepid director, Terry Gilliam, cast three other actors to finish what Ledger started – versions of his character in the fanciful film are also played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
The movie's rollicking trailer, starring all four actors, was released Monday. Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer and Lily Cole also star in the film. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus hits theaters Oct. 16.
– Marla Lehner
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger
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Heath Ledger's Last Days – From His Friends
Originally posted 06/29/2009 01:50PM
In the days leading up to his death, Heath Ledger battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia and exhaustion, according to several members of Ledger's inner circle – who paint a portrait of a tortured man who struggled with personal strife and professional indecision, reports the August Vanity Fair, on sale nationally July 7.
Apparently, one of the biggest struggles in Ledger's life was his deteriorating relationship with partner Michelle Williams.
"Heath was always blaming himself [about the relationship], asking 'what did I do wrong?'" says Ledger's friend and mentor, director Terry Gilliam. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding."
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams
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Final Film Dedicated to Heath Ledger
Originally posted 05/22/2009 03:15PM
The director of Heath Ledger's final film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, says the late actor was more than just a cast member – he almost co-directed the movie.
"Heath was just brilliant at it, and he got everybody else going," Terry Gilliam said Friday at the Cannes Film Festival, where the movie premiered this week. "Everybody was just energized by Heath. He was extraordinary. He was almost exhausting because he had so much energy."
When Ledger died in January 2008 halfway into his performance, Gilliam said he had to "go out and find a way of finishing the film for Heath," the Associated Press reports. The solution: casting Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play incarnations of Ledger during the fantasy movie.
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger
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Michael Caine Ready for His Next Batman Sequel
Originally posted 04/01/2009 11:30AM
Sir Michael Caine, who played Batman's faithful butler in The Dark Knight, is thrilled by the late Heath Ledger's Oscar win for playing The Joker, "stunned" by Christian Bale's infamous on-set outburst and – has hopes for another sequel.
"I'm so pleased," the Englishman, 76 – himself a double Oscar winner – tells PEOPLE of the posthumous Academy Award presented Ledger in February. "I thought that it was very important for his family as well. I was a big fan of his from the first time that I met him."
Permalink | Filed Under: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine
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Michelle Williams Hopes Matilda Becomes a Doctor
Originally posted 02/23/2009 12:00PM
Despite having two actors as parents – and, in the case of her late father, Heath Ledger, an Oscar winner – Michelle Williams's little girl, Matilda, will not grow up in Hollywood, her mother insists.
In fact, Williams, 28, hopes that Matilda, 3, will one day become a doctor. Not that Matilda doesn't have ideas of her own. Her mother admits that currently she wants to be a cowgirl.
With an eye to taking some time from movie work, Williams tells the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph that she is currently very much a stay-at-home mom.
Permalink | Filed Under: Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams
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Slumdog Millionaire Sweeps Oscar Awards
Originally posted 02/22/2009 09:10PM
An underdog movie about a little guy overcoming life's enormous obstacles swept the Oscars Sunday night, as Slumdog Millionaire racked up eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and for its Director, Danny Boyle.
But it was not underdog Mickey Rourke (for The Wrestler) who took the Best Actor Oscar. That honor went to Sean Penn, for Milk, in which he played 1970s gay activist Harvey Milk.
"I did not expect this, and I know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often," Penn said in his impassioned acceptance speech – in which he also acknowledged his fellow nominee, whose career had faded away in the '90s. "Mickey Rourke rises again," said Penn, "and he is my brother."
Permalink | Filed Under: Oscars 2009, Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Pen\u00E9lope Cruz, Sean Penn
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Heath Ledger Wins an Oscar
Originally posted 02/22/2009 10:25PM
In an emotional moment at Sunday's Academy Awards, Heath Ledger's family accepted the actor's posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
"Tonight we are choosing to celebrate and be happy for what he has achieved," said his mother Sally Bell, who stood alongside Heath's father, Kim Ledger, and sister, Kate, on the stage of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
Added Kate, in reference to Heath's 3-year-old daughter, who will inherit his Oscar when she turns 18, "We proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful Matilda."
Permalink | Filed Under: Oscars 2009, Heath Ledger
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