So Heath Ledger is Dead

During the summer of ’97, I became obsessed with a television program (a rarity for me to care for TV). The show was called Roar, an epic drama that took place around 400 A.D. in Ireland. There were only 13 episodes, but during its short run, many North American viewers got their first glimpse at the young, handsome leader of the clan and star of the show: Heath Ledger.
The show was incredibly cheesy, which probably explained its quick cancellation. Ledger played Conor, a Celtic hero who was always too honourable for his own good; and he was the only in the cast to go on to bigger and better things in his career—although it had its ups and downs.
In 2000, he starred alongside Mel Gibson in the war drama The Patriot. The movie won several awards and brought Ledger praise from critics. But from there, besides having a role in acclaimed film Monster’s Ball, Ledger starred in a slew of slumps, including A Knight’s Tale and The Order.
That all changed with the fabulous wonder that was Brokeback Mountain. Ledger went from little known Aussie to big-star hottie overnight, and his career looked on track and promising. But some thought he played a lost soul a little too accurately, and the fact his body was found on Tuesday, Jan. 22, attests to the parallels between the character he played on Brokeback and his real life—not as a gay man, but a man that hurt so deep he couldn’t even act his way out of it.
Ledger was high school dropout, and supposedly struggled with different sorts of drugs for a long time. Watching him on-screen, it was sometimes hard to find his characters believable because something else was going on inside his head while he was acting. Whether it was his eyes or his subtle movements, Ledger had the aura of someone who had been broken and was having trouble rebuilding.
So, he is dead now. Gone the way of many stars: Monroe, Dean, Joplin. And he leaves behind a two-year old daughter who will never get to know the real him. She will only know him as we, the fans, do. She will see him in his movies and wish she could meet him, just like I did when I saw him in Roar.
In a way, all celebrities are already dead to their fans. Fans know them through the roles they play, and will never really know their true personalities; they are unattainable to us, just as the dead are to everyone. Good-bye to a man I never met, and good luck to his daughter, Matilda, who just left Hollywood and entered reality.