Ledger's tryst with the Oscars, wins after death

Heath Ledger on Monday became the second actor in Oscar's history to win the coveted award posthumously for his memorable portrayal as the villain 'The Joker' in The Dark Knight.

Ironically, the honours come exactly a year after his tragic death which cut short his promising acting career in Hollywood. The golden statue will go to his 3-year-old daughter Mathilda Rose.

Ledger, who died in January last year at the age of 28, is also the second Australian after Peter Finch to win the Academy trophy. Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his 1976 classic Network.

Ironic but true the tragic star never got the kind of recognition in his lifetime that he is getting after his death for his villainous act in The Dark Knight. In his lifetime, Ledger desperately tried to break away from his chocolate boy image by accepting unusual roles.

The Aussie hunk has already won a posthumous Golden Globe and BAFTA for his role as 'The Joker'. Ledger, born on the April 4, 1979, in Perth. He left school and went to Sydney at 17 in the hope of making it big in the acting world.

He got his first break with Blackrock in 1997 which was a small budget movie about a teenager's struggle. Thereafter, Ledger continued doing small and insignificant roles inTV show Sweat in 1996 where he played the role of a gay cyclist. He also had a small role in Paws in 1997.

The major break-through in his career came with Two Hands in 1999, which was written and directed by Australian director Gregor Jordan. The crime movie was highly acclaimed and helped Ledger secure a role in teen-comedy 10 Things I Hate About You in the same year.

But Ledger was not satisfied as he felt he was being typecast as a romantic actor and moved on to play a serious role in the war drama The Patriot in 2000 where he starred
as Mel Gibson's son.

From 2000 to 2005, Ledger played a host of characters where he was cast both as supporting actor and lead hero. He played the small role of Sonny Grotowski, the son
of Hank Grotowski in Monster's Ball (2000). The lead role in A Knight's Tale in 2001, The Four Feathers an American period film directed by Shekhar Kapur in
2002.

Ledger also starred as Casanova in 2005 based on the life of Giacomo Casanova.In 2001, Ledger won a ShoWest Award as Male Star of Tomorrow. With his gay turn in Brokeback Mountain in 2005, the actor finally got his slice of fame.

In this movie Ledger plays the role of a gay cowboy who has an affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. The role earned him a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for Best Actor category. Ledger also received Best Actor of 2005 awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his performance in the film.

After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger played the the character for which he would be best remembered -'The Joker' in The Dark Knight. Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the New York in neighbourhood of SoHo, with a
bottle of prescription sleeping pills nearby.

It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. However, the show is still not over for Ledger, who will be seen in the fantasy time travel movie Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.