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SYDNEY - Heath Ledger was named after Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights, and at times he was as brooding and intense as the character in the Emily Bronte novel.
But Ledger had an "unknown factor" which lit up the screen, actor and mentor Mel Gibson once said.
Ledger could be brilliant, and earned an Oscar nomination as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, but the young heartthrob also made some questionable choices of roles in a high-profile movie career which began in 1999.
The Perth-born actor, dead at 28 from what New York police suspect may be a drug overdose, also earned critical acclaim for his role as a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian movie Candy.
Despite his talent and early success, Ledger had an uneasy relationship with the media.
In 2004 he allegedly spat at and assaulted a photographer in Sydney, apparently in retaliation for paparazzi squirting him with water on the red carpet for Brokeback Mountain.
At one stage Ledger was living in Sydney, where he bought a luxury home overlooking Bronte Beach, but moved to the United States because he said he was being pestered by paparazzi.
He then lived in Hollywood and New York with actress and fiancee Michelle Williams and their two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, but the couple split in September last year.
He had since been linked to Australian supermodel Gemma Ward, after they were seen together over the Christmas holidays.
Ledger was born on April 4, 1979 in Perth to parents Sally Ledger Bell, a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a race car driver and mining engineer.
He left school at 16 and moved to Sydney to pursue an acting career.
After some small parts in Australian productions, Ledger broke through in 1999 with starring roles in the Hollywood teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and the acclaimed Australian movie Two Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan.
He went on to star alongside Mel Gibson in The Patriot, in 2000, and A Knight's Tale in 2001.
Ledger seemed positioned as the next "it" boy after such box office hits, but opted for a change of direction with roles in Monster's Ball, The Four Feathers and Ned Kelly.
The highlight of his career came in 2005 with his best actor Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain, during which he met Williams, his co-star.
His portrayal of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar also earned Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nominations.
Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee hailed Ledger's performance as a "miracle" of acting, reminiscent of a young Marlon Brando.
Ledger's first acting role was as a homosexual athlete in little-known Australian TV soap opera Sweat in 1996. He played a gay cyclist in the teen soap, set at the Western Australian Institute of Sport and which portrayed the lives of Olympic hopefuls.
The creator and writer of the series, John Rapsey, said it was clear even then that Ledger, then a 16-year-old sports champion and high school dropout, possessed an unusual talent.
"He himself had absolutely no problem playing the role. He handled all of that with great aplomb," Rapsey told AFP.
"What was noticeable about him was he was concentrated, very quiet, and you could see that he was really observant of other people."
Ledger, who never attended acting school, credited his instincts with his success.
"The one thing that's got me to where I'm sitting is my instincts, you know, and I'm impatient. I didn't want to wait for years to work. I wanted to just get out there and do it," he said in an interview with an Australian television program in 2001.
After leaving Sydney for Hollywood at the age of 19, Ledger's standout talent was spotted by Mel Gibson when auditioning 500 actors for the role of his son in The Patriot. The casting was Ledger's first Hollywood break and led to his leading role in A Knight's Tale.
Ledger continued his steady impact on Hollywood, with a small role in Monster's Ball (2001), followed by the lead in the lightweight The Four Feathers (2002), Australian drama Ned Kelly (2003) and The Brothers Grimm (2005).
This month, Ledger had been working on his latest movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam, which was due to be released next year. He also portrayed The Joker in a Batman movie called The Dark Knight to be released later this year.
- AAP
