Heath Ledger as the Joker, in the Batman movie The Dark Knight.
Heath Ledger was a good looking and talented actor, father and son who seemingly had it all. Yet he died, as too many do, far too young.
And, as his dad Kim told our reporter Rebecca Malcolm, it was all down to a tragic mistake made by a "cavalier" young
man living a busy, slightly chaotic life.
Many people die every day who are not famous so we rarely hear their stories. Some will have died in the same way as Heath Ledger.
But inevitably when a celebrity dies, there is a fascination with everything about it. How, where, when, why it happened are all immediately speculated upon and every detail reported.
While that has its downsides, such as loss of privacy and sometimes inaccurate and hurtful rumours, there will often be the opportunity for a star's public profile to be used for good even after they are gone.
