Heath Ledger

O.k, I admit it was kind of shocking to hear about Heath Ledger, seeing that he was only 28 and all. I enjoyed all of his performances that I actually saw him in, even if the movie itself was lacking (read: The Brothers Grimm...horrible) And of course, the role he will probably will be synonymous with, Brokeback Mountain, which I haven't seen, nor do I plan to.
As of this writing, I haven't seen his earlier works like 10 Things I Hate About You, or Two Hands. I thoroughly enjoyed A Knight's Tale. Most people I know didn't, but I thought it was rather charming. He should have been nominated for an Oscar for his role of Sonny Grotowski in Monster's Ball (which I may cover in a new post coming soon to be entitled, "They Should Have Won", a list of performers and films that I feel were robbed of an Academy Award. Maybe I'll put the Ledger/Ball performance under the title of, "They Should Have at Least Been Nominated".

Ledger actually first caught my attention in The Patriot with Mel Gibson. A fine performance that might have actually overshadowed Gibson himself. The Four Feathers was another interesting film he was in, but I found it to be a little drawn out in some places, Ledger's performance not withstanding.

I've already heard comparisons to that of James Dean. James Dean? I mean Ledger's been dead for what, almost a week and they're insulting him already? James Dean was an under-actor who was over-rated. Don't give me this "Rebel without a Cause" gibberish. That movie made no money and he couldn't sell it. Trust me, his name alone on a marquee is not what sold tickets. Yeah, he had a credible catalogue of work when he was younger, but working a lot doesn't necessarily mean you're good at it. The only reason Giant sold was because of established stars, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor.

You have to know, that Ledger's last film, The Dark Knight, wherein he plays the phsycotic Joker (and from what I've heard and based on the trailers I've seen, it looks awesome) is going to be m-o-n-e-y. You put together the latest Batman movie and an recently departed actor's swansong...CHA_CHING!
But seriously, Ledger is going to blow people away with his portrayal of the Joker. I don't think you can fairly compare his to Jack Nicholson's, since they were in different eras and in two different styles of film. But I do believe Ledger's will be waaaaaay better.
It's a damn shame, from his growing body of work, it looked like Ledger's roles and performances were only going to get better.