Heath Andrew Ledger was born on April 4, 1979 at the Subiaco Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. Heath and his older sister Catherine were named after the romantic lead characters Heathcliff and Cathy in Emily Bronte's classic novel "Wuthering Heights". His father, Kim, and mother, Sally, were divorced when Heath was 10 years old. They went on to remarry and Heath now has two half-sisters Ashleigh (born in 1989) and Olivia (born in 1997). He attended school at the all-boys school Guilford Grammar School where he excelled at drama and sports. After graduating school at sixteen years old, he and his best mate Trevor DiCarlo drove 2600 miles from Perth to Sydney where he pursued his acting dream.
He got a role in the 1996 Australian TV series "Sweat" in which he played the part of Snowy Bowles, a gay cyclist and Olympic hopeful. This was the first gay role in an Australian TV series. His next TV series was the medieval drama "Roar", in which he played a Celtic warrior. The series was short-lived, but it did attract the attention of a Hollywood agent for Heath. He got a large part in the black comedy "Two Hands", a film set in Australia, and was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor Award at the 1999 Australian Film Institute. Other film roles followed including parts in "10 Things I Hate About You", "The Patriot" opposite Mel Gibson, "A Knight's Tale", "Monster's Ball", and "Four Feathers". His newest film is "Ned Kelly". Upcoming is "The Order", which is already filmed and scheduled to be released in September, 2003 in the U.S. Currently Heath is scheduled to begin filming a new film directed by Terry Gilliam called "The Brothers Grimm". Filming begins this summer in Prague.
