Normally I don't blog on celebrity although I'm a junkie for TMZ and Perezhilton.com. But yesterday one of my Hollywood "crushes" passed away unexpectedly and I felt compelled to mark his passing with a few paragraphs here in my blog.
I was home in my living room when I got the news. TMZ was reporting on their website that Australian born actor, Heath Ledger was found dead in his Soho apartment in downtown Manhattan. I was completely stunned. This guy was 28 years old! He was tall, handsome (gorgeous) and a very very talented actor who didn't seem to have the usual problems that plague many Hollywood stars.
I wasn't a huge fan of Brokeback Mountain. While I liked the storyline, I thought the movie dragged on in places and could have been a bit shorter. But as I watched and re-watched it, I began to have a greater appreciation for the acting that Heath did. He nailed the character he was portraying, right down to the final minutes in the film. You could literally feel his emotions and that's hard to come by in the days of ready-made movies and computer generated graphics. Raw emotion from an actor gives you a greater appreciation for the movie by sucking you in and making you forget that you're actually watching a movie....Heath was good like that.
Did I say he was gorgeous? Even though Brokeback was about two gay sheep herding cowboys, I fantasized about a Heath Ledger cowboy riding off with me into the sunset. There was something about his weather-lined face peeking out from underneath that tan cowboy hat. Watching him deftly mount his horse in his perfectly worn (and tight) blue jeans, maneuvering it up the mountain that just sent my heart aflutter. Seriously. I don't think I had a crush on another actor like this. At least not since my teenaged lustings for Kirk Cameron and Michael J. Fox.
He was great in A Knight's Tale and The Four Feathers, (more of him on a horse), and I couldn't wait to see him as The Joker in the new Batman film that's being released in theaters this June. Even Michael Caine, an accomplished actor in his own right, said that he was blown away by Heath's portrayal of The Joker. "The scariest portrayal of a character" that he's ever seen, were his words on the subject. While I believe the movie would have made millions anyway, now that Heath has passed away it will more than likely be a record breaker.
An autopsy is scheduled for today sometime, to determine the cause of death. There had been rumblings that he was having trouble sleeping and was prescribed sleeping pills but they weren't working for him so he upped the dosage himself. (Never a good idea people!) Apparently he was also suffering from pneumonia and was exhausted because of a movie he was shooting.
The rest is all speculation. But really, what does it matter? The bottom line is that the world has lost the best promising actor currently on the horizon. No matter what, it's still a tragedy.
So I'm going to NetFlix right now to add some of his movies to my queue....and watch that gorgeous cowboy ride off into the sunset one final time.
