Heath Ledger Wins Best-Supporting Actor Oscar
The Second-Ever Posthumous Oscar Awarded to Ledger
The award was honored posthumously to Ledger, who died just over a year ago, on January 22, 2008. Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Adding a touch of irony to the sadness of Ledger's death, he passed away on Oscar nomination day last year.
Heath Ledger's award was accepted by his father, mother, and sister. Their joint acceptance speech brought tears to the eyes of many audience members, from the unknown to the best-known members of the audience.
"We would like to thank the Academy and Warner Brothers for allowing Heath the creative license to create and explore this crazy Joker character," Heath's father, Kim Ledger, said while accepting the award.
His role as the Joker was reportedly Heath Ledger's favorite role, and according to Hollywood Today may have exceeded his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain. Ledger said he "thoroughly enjoyed" the role.
"He's just out of control-no empathy, he's a sociopath, a psychotic, a mass-murding clown," said the late-Ledger. "It's just exceeded any expectation of what the experience would be like."
The Australian-born Ledger becomes only the second actor to receive a posthumous Oscar award. The first was Peter Finch, who was awarded a posthumous Oscar for his role in The Network in 1976. Finch had died of a heart attach just three months earlier.
Sources
Susan Jenkins, "Oscars 2009: Ledger Captures Oscar in Emotional Tribute from Family" , Hollywood Today
Associated Press, "Heath Ledger wins best supporting actor" , Msnbc.com
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6 Comments
Post a CommentI'm impressed that you remembered that Peter Finch was previously the only one to win posthumously. I would have been as mad as h... ok ... you get it! : )
Thanks for the great coverage on this!
Heath Ledger was a very talented actor. It is so sad that he dies so young. I think he definitely deserved the Oscar!
Thanks for covering this.
It will be a nice memento for his daughter. According to the Academy, she gets his Oscar when she turns 18.
I bet that was a very emotional moment for his family and friends. It's so sad he died so young. He was really very talented. I loved every movie he was in.