Topic: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes

[myprivatejack]

Thanks for all these last beautiful links and articles,friends ¡ A year after and,somehow,the world is still under the shock of his passing away... :\'(

[white_angel]

Thanks for posting that whole article, white_angel.

Yet another beautiful tribute :\'(

 Yet another beautiful tribute  to a beautiful person .... mind and soul that is Heath Ledger.

[keren_b]

Ledger Family To Accept Oscar

Heath Ledger’s family will accept the late actor’s hotly tipped Oscar on Sunday if his posthumous award-winning streak continues.

Father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger will walk the hottest red carpet in Hollywood among the A-list crowd in anticipation of their late son and brother’s likely Academy Award win for his portrayal of The Joker in last year’s Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight.

Ledger is an almost unbackable favourite to take out the prestigious prize ahead of other Best Supporting Actor nominees Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Shannon.

The Perth-born actor’s maniacal and ghoulish performance has so far won best supporting actor at the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, making an Oscar grand slam a virtual certainty.

The late star is also a strong sentimental favourite to win the award. Oscars host Hugh Jackman has thrown his celebrity weight behind his fellow Australian, while Hollywood stars, some of whom took extraordinary measures to help support Ledger’s daughter Matilda following his shocking loss in January last year, have come out in droves to celebrate his star turn in the Batman flick.

A spokeswoman for Ledger’s family said many family members would fly out of Perth for Hollywood on February 18, while Kim, Sally and Kate were confirmed attendees at the ceremony. Younger sisters Ashleigh Bell and Olivia Ledger would also make the trip to Hollywood.

It looked like all three attending the ceremony would accept the award on Ledger’s behalf, but the family were still deciding on details including who would address the ceremony if he did win.

Last month, on the anniversary of Ledger’s passing, his glamorous sister Kate told of the heart-wrenching journey the family had been on since the unexpected tragedy.

“To us (his family) it seems like nearly yesterday, and we are all still nursing broken hearts,” Kate said.

“Like anyone who loses a family member, it has opened our eyes to the intense suffering and painful journey that is death.”

His younger sister Ashleigh Bell said at the time that the family were proud and excited on his behalf.

“In Heath’s words, he had ‘the time of his life’ portraying the Joker and said that ‘it was the most fun he had ever had making a film’,” she said.

The Dark Knight was the most successful comic adaptation of all time, with a global box-office take that has so far topped $US1 billion ($1.5 billion).


Source: TheAge.com.au

[vedrana]

****edited by moderator, please avoid to post links that include paparazzi pictures,  refer to our guidelines****

[NoReins]

Oh god...I'm certain to be in floods when (not if) he wins now. Seeing his family accept the award is going to be truly heartbreaking :\'(

I've taken the day off on Monday so I can stay up and watch the Oscars live. Last time I did that was 2006...

[jackster]

This is not as trashy sounding as the headline suggests, it's actually somewhat informative of the process the Academy has gone though here . . .

Matilda must sign contract if she wants Heath's Oscar
19th February 2009, 6:45 WST

If Heath Ledger is named best supporting actor at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, his daughter, three-year-old Matilda Rose Ledger, won't get the statuette until her 18th birthday on October 28, 2023 - and even then, only if she signs a contract.

Matilda, daughter of the late Ledger and actor Michelle Williams, has been designated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the eventual owner of her father's Oscar, should he win for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight.

But Ledger's nomination, and his daughter's young age, led to one of the trickiest situations the academy has dealt with in its eight decades of awarding posthumous Oscars.

"It's complicated, because there are two different questions that have to be answered," says Bruce Davis, executive director of the academy. "First, we have to decide who gets the job of accepting the award onstage on the night of the ceremony. And then there's the question of the eventual disposition of the posthumous statuette, which may not stay with the person who accepts it."

In Ledger's case, says Davis, the second question was the hardest to answer.

Academy tradition calls for a posthumous statuette to go to the spouse, or, if there is no living spouse, to the oldest child. Ledger wasn't married, and Matilda is his only child.

Yet because she is only 3, Matilda is legally unable to sign the winner's agreement - a contract required of all nominees that says the recipient will not resell his or her Oscar without first offering it back to the academy for $1. The agreement is the academy's way of limiting what might otherwise be a lively secondary market in Oscars.

"From our point of view, somebody has to sign the winner's agreement, and a three-year-old can't do that," says Davis. "Nor can a parent sign any kind of legal document that obligates a child to do something once they turn 18. I didn't know that before we looked into it, but it's a good law."

After conversations with Williams and with Ledger's family in Australia, the academy hit on a solution: "In the event that Heath Ledger should be selected as the supporting actor recipient, the statuette will be held in trust for his daughter by her mother, Michelle Williams, until Matilda reaches the age of 18," says Davis. "At that point, she may execute what we call an heir's agreement and keep the statuette forever - or, if she chooses not to do that, it will return to us."

In other words, the Oscar statuette can spend the next 15 years with Matilda, but her mother, who has signed the academy's agreement, will be the legal custodian. When Matilda is old enough, she can claim ownership by signing the agreement. If she does so, she'll become the official owner and will be legally bound not to sell her Oscar; if she opts not to sign, the statuette will revert to the academy without any payment.

As for who would accept the award, that - like many other aspects of the ceremony - is a matter that show producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon are keeping under wraps. Davis will only say that tradition calls for a posthumous Oscar to be accepted either by a close relative or "an artist who was close to the nominee, and who can speak credibly for him or her."

The last posthumous Oscar went to cinematographer Conrad L. Hall in 2002, and was accepted by Hall's son.

"We always had a very good idea of what we should do and who was going to accept," says Gil Cates, who produced 14 Oscar shows that included nine posthumous nominations and three wins. "You need to line up someone who's respectable to avoid any embarrassing or difficult moments, and for me it was always easy to agree with the academy on a legitimate person."

The decision was also simple for this year's other posthumous nominees, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, producers of best-picture nominee "The Reader." If the movie wins the top prize, the other nominated producers, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris, will also accept on behalf of Pollack and Minghella, and the statuettes will then be given to their widows.

Faced with the prospect of a minor potentially taking possession of Ledger's Oscar, the academy has in recent days revisited the way it handled underage winners such as Tatum O'Neal, who was 10 when she won best supporting actress for 1973's Paper Moon, and Anna Paquin, who in 1994 won the best supporting actress award for The Piano at age 11.

"What we've tended to do is have them sign anyway, and then get back to them after they turn 18 and ask them to re-execute the agreement," Davis says. "I would love to tell you that that has happened in every single case, but your call prompted a little research. And in a couple of cases, we've never completed the circle."

In other words, there may be some Oscars out there not under academy control?

"I don't expect any trouble," says Davis with a laugh, "but, in fact, yes."

LOS ANGELES
AP

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=5&ContentID=125632

[keren_b]

Oh god...I'm certain to be in floods when (not if) he wins now. Seeing his family accept the award is going to be truly heartbreaking :\'(

I've taken the day off on Monday so I can stay up and watch the Oscars live. Last time I did that was 2006...

So did I! I know it's gonna be very emotional...  :\'(

[NoReins]

So did I! I know it's gonna be very emotional...  :\'(

I assume you'll be on the live chat on here? I'm planning to have the laptop on my knee throughout - I think I'll need the support.

Wish I'd had that in 2006, actually. It might have helped

[keren_b]

I assume you'll be on the live chat on here? I'm planning to have the laptop on my knee throughout - I think I'll need the support.

Wish I'd had that in 2006, actually. It might have helped

Yes, I'll be on the live chat... I wish I could watch it with brokies, but that's the next closest thing.

Just found this, a wonderful tribute from Heath's family:

Sculpture tribute to Ledger reveals his love of chess

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=125649

[jackster]

Heath Ledger’s final bow expected at Academy Awards
22nd February 2009, 12:15 WST

The final page of Heath Ledger’s short and remarkable life will be written on Monday (AEDT) at the 81st Academy Awards.

If Ledger’s name is announced as winner of the best supporting actor Oscar for his unnerving performance as villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, his heartbroken parents, Kim and Sally, and sister Kate, are expected to walk on stage inside Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre to deliver the acceptance speech.

Standing ovations have greeted Ledger’s wins at rival Hollywood award events the past month and the same is expected to occur if the Academy’s 6,000 voters follow the script at the movie industry’s grandest night.

Bookmakers have Ledger at the slimmest of odds to claim the award while every reputable film critic and Oscar pundit has Ledger pencilled in as the winner.

Time magazine declared Ledger a “sure thing”.

The New York Times simply told its readers: “No contest, no debate, Heath Ledger”.

The Academy Awards ceremony will be a special night for Australia, with Hugh Jackman taking centre stage as the ceremony’s host.

Oscar organisers have anointed the likable 40-year-old from Sydney’s northern suburbs the man to stem a steep slide in TV ratings for the annual awards night, but many TV critics in the US have branded Jackman a poor choice.

The big screen star and Broadway showman is expected to open the ceremony with a 12-minute singing and dancing number directed by another Australian, Baz Luhrmann.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but there is a twist this year,” Jackman hinted.

“We are going in a slightly different direction with the Oscars.”

Ledger, who died 13 months ago aged 28 from an accidental prescription drug overdose, is one of six Australians nominated for Academy Awards.

Catherine Martin, for her costume work on the epic Australia, is hoping to pick up the third Oscar of her career after claiming two in 2002 for Moulin Rouge!

Australia will also be represented by Michael Carlin in the art direction category for the Keira Knightley period drama, The Duchess; Ben Snow is nominated for the visual effects Oscar for Iron Man; while two Aussies will fight it out for the film editing prize with Kirk Baxter (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Lee Smith (The Dark Knight) recognised.

If Ledger wins it will be the first time an Oscar has been awarded to a deceased actor since another Australian, Peter Finch, was named for Network in 1977.

Finch died from a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel two months before the ceremony.

Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight was a scene-stealer, but the Perth-born actor was anything but an attention-seeker away from the film set.

Friends and family members say the actor was never comfortable in front of a crowd.

When Ledger was nominated in 2006 for the best actor Oscar for his role as a gay ranch hand in Brokeback Mountain, a performance so raw and compelling the New York Times compared him to a young Marlon Brando, Ledger said he was relieved when Philip Seymour Hoffman won for Capote.

On Thursday, when his friends and family congregated at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont to hear young Sydney-based actor Oliver Ackland announced as the inaugural Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship winner, director Gregor Jordan summed up Ledger’s public persona.

“Heath would probably think this was pretty ridiculous and stupid,” Jordan, who directed a 20-year-old Ledger in 1999’s Two Hands, told the crowd.

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=5&ContentID=126144

Yup, but oh how I'd love to hear him say it 

[white_angel]

The late Heath is this years Oscars favorite.

http://www.app.com/article/20090222/ENT01/902220316/1031/rss09

BEVERLY HILLS — There's only one sure bet this Oscar season: Heath Ledger.

The Australian actor who broke out in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" received his second Oscar nomination in January — a year to the day after he was found dead at age 28, the result of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

Executive-produced by Ocean Township's Michael Uslan, "The Dark Knight" opened in July. Ever since, Ledger's vivid turn as the villainous Joker was pegged as a near certainty, and now he's seen as destined to win for best supporting actor when trophies are handed out tonight.

The other nominees are Josh Brolin in "Milk," Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder," Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" and Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road."

"Heath has always been the runaway favorite, from the moment the movie came out, and maybe before," says Kris Tapley of the awards Web site InContention.com.

And because "The Dark Knight," the year's most popular film, was overlooked in the categories of best picture and best director, its sole chance in a major category looms even larger.

"It would be a real shock if Ledger doesn't win," Tapley says. "There appears to be one choice."

That's not the case in the other races, though.

[white_angel]

Dark Knight's  Aaron Eckhart is rooting for Heath Ledgers Oscar.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/02/dark-knight-aar.html


 At the Film Independent Awards this afternoon, The Dish Rag asked Aaron Eckhart how he felt about tomorrow's Oscars and the nomination of his "Dark Knight" co-star, the late Heath Ledger.

“Well, tomorrow I will probably be at my ranch, probably watering some trees. So yeah, I'm not going to the show but I'm rooting for Heath obviously.  I have nothing but blessed thoughts for him. Maybe he wins and maybe he doesn't. It doesn't matter to me.  He's a great man and a great actor."

Asked about Heath Ledger’s family’s announced plans to give the Oscar to his daughter, Matilda, he replied, “I think that would be beautiful."

With as many acting awards as her dad has posthumously won this year, Matilda will need a very large display shelf.

What’s next for Aaron?

He’s doing “The Rum Diary” with Johnny Depp and another Oscar 2009 nominee, Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor").

[white_angel]

HEATH LEDGER - FIRST LEDGER SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/first%20ledger%20scholarship%20awarded_109


The inaugural scholarship established in late actor HEATH LEDGER's name has been awarded to Australian performer OLIVER ACKLAND.
The $10,000 (£7,000) fund, established by Ledger's ex-fiancee Michelle Williams and friends following his death last year (08), was given to Ackland at a party for Australian Oscar nominees at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont Hotel on Friday (20Feb09).
Ackland was hand-picked from a pool of 150 applicants by The Dark Knight star's pals and colleagues, including actress Rachel Griffiths.
In presenting the award, filmmaker Greg Jordan, who directed Ledger in Two Hands, told the crowd: "Rachel Griffiths said 'How do we judge this? Are we looking for the next Heath Ledger?'
"We all said 'No. There is no next Heath Ledger, but there's plenty of other people.'"
And for rising star Ackland, 29, the prize was especially meaningful - Ledger has always been one of his role models.
He said: "The fact that it is in his name means the world. I admired Heath and I admired the work that he chose, the path he created for himself. It shows a lot of integrity on his behalf."
Australian stars Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Hugh Jackman all contributed to the bursary, which includes flights to Los Angeles and introductions to agents and casting directors.

[SFJohn]

Ron Gomboc, the artist who created the memorial for Heath, sent me a few pics today.

I asked him if there was any kind of inscription on the memorial.

[SFJohn]

[SFJohn]

[SFJohn]

[christie wood]

These are amazing, thanks so much for sharing them with us....

[babytammy7]

My God, this is beautiful..... :\'( :\'( And a thing I know Heath'd understand and agree with.

I love the chess game.  So Heath.

[ksxks]

Heath Ledger’s final bow expected at Academy Awards
22nd February 2009, 12:15 WST

The final page of Heath Ledger’s short and remarkable life will be written on Monday (AEDT) at the 81st Academy Awards.

But it is not his "final bow" !  We still have The Imaginarium, and I'm sure glad of that.

kathy

[ksxks]

Where is this located?

kathy

[Asali]

Oh WOW, this is so good. I found a news link giving the location the City of Melville, is that north of Applecross?

http://www.melvillecity.com.au/news-folder/ledger-artwork-a-moving-tribute

[jackster]

Where is this located?
kathy

Per the linked story, this is in Applecross across the bay from downtown Perth, which you can see in the background. This is a place Heath used to hang around. (I think, but I'm no Wallaby)

[SFJohn]

Ron Gomboc had this to say about the location.

We are all proud of Heath's achievements and it was an honour to for me to create the three piece memorial for him.  It is positioned on a magnificant site that overlooks the Swan River toward the City of Perth skyline, the place where Heath use to spend a lot of his younger days.

[Asali]

I think I need to organise a trip over to Perth sometime. Love this 

[chameau]

Don't miss our Live Oscar chat, it began.

http://ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=15180.msg889524#msg889524

[keren_b]

Thank you so much for sharing these pictures with us SFJohn!! Heath said that Kahlil Gibran was one of his favourite poets and this quote is so appropriate for his spirit.

[lancecowboy]

Thank you for this, SFJohn. Also please thank Ron Gomboc for sharing his photographs with us. I really appreciate the Kihlil Gibran quote. It resonates with his other quote that is now my own favorite:

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

- Kahlil Gibran

Dear Heath, Sing Loud, Climb High, and Dance Happy, knowing you are loved, always.

[tizi17]

a tribute...

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2009/entertainment/remembering-heath-ledger/index.html

[keren_b]

Heath winning the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the Academy Awards 2009

Acceptance speech: 

Kim Ledger:
First of all, I have to say this is ever so humbling. Just being amongst such wonderful people, such a wonderful industry. Firstly, I'd like to thank the Academy for recognizing our son's amazing work, Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan in particular, for allowing Heath the creative license to develop and explore this crazy Joker character. To Steve Alexander, Heath's mentor, special friend and agent for 10 years. We love you, Steve.

This award tonight would've humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here, his peers, within an industry he so loved. Thank you.

Sally Bell:
Heath was such a compassionate and generous soul who added so much excitement and inspiration to our lives. We have been truly overwhelmed by the honor and respect being bestowed upon him with this award. Tonight, we are choosing to celebrate and be happy for what he has achieved.

Kate Ledger:
Heath, we both knew what you had created in the Joker was extraordinarily special and had even talked about being here on this very day. We really wish you were, but we proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful Matilda. Thank you.