Heath Ledger RIP

Celebrity deaths in the US aren't the way they used to be. At some point in time, Americans were more innocent, or at the very least, more in awe of movie stars, and saw them as larger-than-life. While that's true, to some extent, today, people are likely to express surprise, rather than profound sadness or depression.

Heath Ledger, unlike say Bobby Fischer or Edmund Hillary, was still pretty young when he died, at the age of 28. Generally, people assume that actors that die young do drugs or have committed suicide. Since most of us don't know the actor as a person, we don't know what happened.

Some argue, perhaps quite rightly, that many others die, whether in Iraq, or other countries (why pick on countries that Americans are involved in) are treated with no fanfare. Clearly, this has to do with the sheer number of people who pass away, and that most of them are not that well-known, and in any case, we'd be terribly depressed if we cared about each one. So, we elevate celebrities. When they pass away, we pay attention.

There's not quite an equivalent of a female starlet of the 40s, especially on the male side. Heath Ledger seemed to fall in this category. When Mel Gibson came across the pond, there was suddenly an infatuation with Australians (although, as it turns out, Gibson was born in the US, but raised in Australia).

Then came a spate of Australians. Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, and yes, Heath Ledger.

Despite being rather handsome, Ledger opted for roles that stretched his acting skills, while occasionally taking more conventional roles of a starring lead. When he was selected to be in Brokeback Mountain, many thought he'd be the weaker actor compared to Jake Gyllenhaal, when in fact, Ledger was the far stronger actor.

He recently played Joker in the lastest Batman installation, which has yet to reach the theaters.

Presumably, in the upcoming days, we'll hear more, and some people will be curious, and others will be disdainful of a mere actor that got newsplay because he died too soon.

Even so, it doesn't hurt to pay respect to his body of work, and to wonder what might have been.