Background and career
Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor. Known for his versatility across independent and major studio films, his work consisted of 20 films in a variety of genres. His accolades included an Academy Award, an Actor Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
After playing roles in Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, he moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film career. His film breakthrough came as the lead in the romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). He gained further recognition for his roles in films such as Two Hands (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Ned Kelly (2003), and Lords of Dogtown (2005). For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005), he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also starred in Candy (2006) and portrayed a composite of Bob Dylan's life and persona in Todd Haynes's I'm Not There (2007).
In January 2008, Ledger died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Several months before his death, he had finished filming his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), which later became his first posthumous release. His performance received widespread media attention and critical acclaim, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It has since been regarded as one of the greatest villain performances in film history. His final film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, was posthumously released in 2009.
Heath Andrew Ledger was born on 4 April 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally Ramshaw, a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a racing car driver and mining engineer whose family established and owned the Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather Frank Ledger. He had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age ten. His parents separated when he was ten and divorced when he was eleven. Ledger's older sister Kate, an actress and later a publicist, with whom he was very close, inspired his acting on stage; and his love of Gene Kelly inspired his successful choreography, leading to Guildford Grammar's 60-member team's "first all-boy victory" at the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. Ledger's two half-sisters are Ashleigh Bell (born 1990), his mother's daughter with her second husband Roger Bell; and Olivia Ledger (born 1996), his father's daughter with his second wife Emma Brown.
How Heath Ledger makes money
Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had made some music videos with his production company The Masses, which director Todd Haynes praised highly in his tribute to Ledger upon accepting the ISP Robert Altman Award, which Ledger posthumously shared, on 23 February 2008. On 27 September 2008, Kim Ledger stated that the family had agreed to leave Ledger's US$16.3 million estate to Matilda Rose Ledger.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (2026-10-05), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
