Shocking News

I'm not returning to this blog with good news, but somehow I wanted to leave a small homage to one of my favorite actors, Heath Ledger, who was just found dead yesterday in New York.

I was at work when I first read the news on CNN site, and remained stunned for a few minutes, incapable of reacting. I hate what celebrity does to really good artists, and I really don't agree with what someone I know said, that all truly good artists, staring with Van Gogh - a well known opium addict - have some sort of addiction that "allows" them to create, to express themselves.

Heath was only 28... cute guy, father of a 2 year old girl, Academy Award-nominated... And he had such a great and addictive smile...

I first saw him act in "10 Things I Hate About You", maybe the only "teenage" movie I like to watch without getting bored. I found him charming, funny, cute as a devil, and promising. I always laugh when I see that movie, Heath and Julia Stiles are do great together... I mean, how can you not, when you have dialogs like...

Patrick: Well maybe you're not afraid of me but I'm sure you've thought about me naked, huh?
Kat Stratford: [sarcastically] Am I that transparent? I want you, I *need* you, oh baby, oh baby.

or...

Patrick: Hey there girly... how you doin'?
Kat Stratford: Sweating like a pig actually and yourself?
Patrick: Now there's a way to get a guy's attention huh?
Kat Stratford: My mission in life but obviously I struck your fancy so you see it worked... the world makes sense again.

Then I loved him in "Casanova", cried next to him in "Candy", remembered childhood and fairy tales when I saw "The Brothers Grimm", adored him in "The Patriot", "A Knight's Tale", "Ned Kelly", even in "Brokeback Mountain".

Heath Ledger was born in Perth, Australia, and named Heathcliff Andrew after the main characters of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." He began acting at a local theater as a child.

Ledger's first American film was the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" in 1999, and he immediately attracted attention from Hollywood. He passed up several scripts before taking a role in the Revolutionary War drama "The Patriot" in 2000 and "A Knight's Tale" in 2001. He also played a supporting role in "Monster's Ball," among other films.

"In a way I was spoon-fed a career," he told the Glasgow Herald in 2005. "It was fully manufactured by a studio that believed it could put me on their posters and turn me into a product. ... I hadn't figured out properly how to act, and all of a sudden I was being thrown into these lead roles."

But Ledger was perhaps best known for his 2005 portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," about two cowboys who had a secret romantic relationship. The role earned him an Oscar nomination.

"I felt that choices were being made for me, so I feel this has been my time now to find the good stories and test myself," Ledger told the Glasgow Herald in the 2005 interview. "It has been an interesting year, where I finally have a sense of accomplishment."

Ledger has a daughter, Matilda Rose, born in 2005 to his then-girlfriend, Michelle Williams, who played his on-screen wife, Alma, in "Brokeback Mountain." The couple have since separated.

News taken from cnn.com ; Shoking News© 2008 moonlight ; PHOTO from upload.moldova.org