It has been 17 years since Heath Ledger‘s sudden death and his legacy is still being remembered.
The Australian-born actor died at age 28 on January 22, 2008, following an accidental drug overdose. The toxicology report released following his sudden passing revealed that Ledger died from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.”
Ledger was found dead after his housekeeper and massage therapist entered his New York City apartment in the late afternoon. Years later, director Stephen Gaghan revealed that he planned to turn Malcolm Gladwell book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking into a movie. But after Ledger (who was attached to the project) died, the film never came to fruition.
Gaghan got a call from Ledger’s father, Kim Ledger, on the day of the actor’s death. (Ledger’s friend was also on the call.)
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“They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” Gaghan recalled while talking to Gladwell during a February 2024 episode of the “Developmental Hell” podcast. “I think my number was on the script, like, written. These guys, as you can imagine, they are in shock, and they dialed that number, and I don’t know why.”
Gaghan said he was in an airport with his wife, Minnie Mortimer, when he got the call about Ledger.
“The emotion, what they were going through, I should not have been a party to in any way really, and yet as a human or as somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening and my wife was looking at me,” the director continued. “I remember her face and I was just like, I was speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad.”
Ledger rose to fame in the late 1990s after starring as Patrick Verona in 10 Things I Hate About You. He went on to appear in The Patriot, Monster’s Ball, A Knight’s Tale and The Brothers Grimm before playing Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, a role which nabbed him a 2006 Academy Award nomination in the Best Actor category.
Ledger also famously played the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which was released in July 2008 — months after Ledger’s death. The actor was posthumously awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in February 2009, exactly 13 months after his passing.
Over the years, Ledger has been remembered positively by fellow Hollywood stars. His longtime girlfriend Michelle Williams has spoken at length about his death. (Ledger and Williams dated from 2005 to 2007, after meeting on the Brokeback Mountain set. They share a daughter, Matilda, who was born in October 2005.)
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“Every time I really miss him and wonder where he’s gone, I just look at her,” Williams told Vogue in September 2009, referring to their daughter. “I can talk about grief, because that’s mine, about single parenting, about trying to balance work and kids. But what I don’t have to talk about is what happened between Heath and me in our relationship. Brokeback Mountain was an unrepeatable moment in time, a very charmed time in my life. I was in love. I was in a movie I was proud to be a part of and with a beautiful, brand new baby. Everything was good in that moment.”
10 Things I Hate About You costar Julia Stiles even remembered his “magnetic presence” in a past interview.
“He had a zest for life and just was like always, he was never checked out,” the actress recalled. “He was always totally engaged with everybody. Really interesting, remarkable person and actor.”
It was obvious that Ledger’s impact is still major in Hollywood when director Nolan accepted the Best Director Golden Globe for Oppenheimer in 2024.
“The only time I’ve ever been on this stage before was accepting one of these on behalf of our dear friend Heath Ledger, and that was complicated and challenging for me,” Nolan said, in part, during his speech. “And in the middle of speaking, I glanced up and Robert Downey Jr. caught my eye and gave me a look of love and support — the same look he’s giving me now, the same love and support he’s shown so many people in our community over so many years.”
