| Heathcliffe Andrew Rufus Gregory Fitzpatrick Peter Bob Ledger III was born on April 4th 1979 with the star sign Aries at Subiaco Hospital, Perth Australia. Heath is the only boy out of a family of 4 children, his 3 sisters are called Catherine Kate (older), Olivia (born in 1997; mother: Emma Brown) and Ashleigh Bell (born in 1989; father: Roger Bell). His parents are Sally Bell (French tutor) and Kim Ledger (a mining engineer) they divorced in 1989, Kim went to Paris and is now in love with Emma Brown and Sally married Roger Bell. Heath feels his parents are his best friends "They're my best friends," he gushes. "The point I got to very quickly after my parents' divorce [he was 10] was to realise that they are just humans." Heath still remains close to his father "our relationship went from being in each other's face to being best friends. I guess that comes from understanding him as an adult now that I'm an adult." He wishes he spent more time with his family "I feel like I'm a stranger to them, That's why I try to get back as much as possible." Heath's first big break was an acting role of a donkey in his school nativity! Heath went to an all boys school, Guildford Grammar and was very talented in the area of hockey where he won lots of awards at the same time as out shining the rest of his drama class with honors in drama and was made captain of the drama team in 1996. At the age of 15 Heath's hockey coach gave him a choice: hockey or the silver screen? Aren't we glad he chose the silver screen?!!At High school Heath co-ordinated a team to take part in a nation-wide High school dance competition, Rock Eisteddfod. "We were the first all-guys school to ever do it," and "I choreographed the whole thing. These kids had never danced and didn't think they could do it. By the end, when they won the competition, they were so blown away by it." Heath started in the Globe Shakespeare Company. Heath's eldest sister, Kate is an actress and after playing Peter Pan in the theatre he to became an aspiring actor "I just loved it," he says "and kept doing it. I blinked my eyes and I was getting paid. Doors kept opening and I kept walking through them.". At the age of 16 he drove 2600 miles to Sydney alongside best friend (since the age of 3), Trevor DiCarlo in search of fame and fortune. "It was really about exploring life" says Heath "I just wanted to get on that train that was flying past at 90 miles an hour. And my job was an excuse to get out and just do that." His debut role was in 1997 in the Australian teen drama, Blackrock which led him to the part as one of Australia's first television gay roles on Sweat, a show about young olympic hopefuls. His father says "He had the choice of two roles," and "One was the swimmer and the other was the gay bicyclist. I was thinking to myself, Yeah he'll choose the swimmer! I used to be a swimmer when I was younger. This'll be great! But then he told me he chose the gay role. I went, 'Oh, God...well, O.K.' But his response to that was 'Look, Dad, this is more of an acting role. So if I want to get some sort of recognition, that's the one I should be doing.' He wasn't fazed be any of the other stuff." Heath was on Home and Away as "it was the only job that had come around for a while, so I did it. But as soon as I said 'yeah,' I got a role in an American show, Roar." Heath went on to star in Fox's medieval drama, Roar where he played a Celtic warrior prince. "Ironically, it was a 'Braveheart' rip-off," he says, "It was shot beautifully, and the script was half decent." Heath's wife in Roar was Keri Russell who was killed off in the early episodes. "They shouldn't have let her die," Heath states, "We worked together really well. And after they killed her, they were going through all the possibilities of how they could get her back. Couldn't come up with anything." Roar led him to seek out an agent in the States and he was immediately given the role on low budget black comedy, Two Hands which brought him back to Australia "You've apparently got to leave the country to get work," he laughs. "It cleaned up in Australia and it won all the awards." but in America it didn't go down as well "I don't think I've met one American who fully understands exactly what's going on in that movie," jokes Heath. After shooting Two Hands Heath only had 2 days to get from Sydney to Seattle to begin "10 Things I Hate About You" alongside Julia Stiles "I had no rehearsals, nothing. I just basically turned up and went, Uh, what am I doing?" After Ten Things Heath didn't want to get stuck in the teenage-movie trap even though he was being sent numerous teen based movie scripts "There's little depth in those scripts," he says, "You can only take the psyche of a teenager to a certain level." he recalls, "I was literally living off Ramen noodles and water just because I was sticking to my guns, It was very hard because they offer you so much money," says Heath, "I guess I had thrown myself into a higher league of actors on a list that I probably shouldn't have been on at that point, but saying no turned out to be a lot more valuable than saying yes." After about a year Heath was sent a script for "The Patriot" where he beat over 200 actors for his role as childhood hero, Mel Gibson's son. The wait after the audition "was terrible. It was awful. For every day for three weeks they said: 'Tomorrow you're going to know, I promise you.'" Ryan Phillippe had also auditioned Heath heard "Ryan did a really amazing screen test as well. The executives and everyone said: 'Fine, we'll leave it up to the director. If you pick this guy the movie's going to go this way and if you pick that guy the movie's going to go that way - two different movies" They made the right choice in the end deciding Heath and Mel looked like father and son and of course Heath was best! After "The Patriot" Heath went on to star in A Knight's Tale where director, Brian Helgeland had to have him after seeing him playing a didgeridoo in an airport lounge, "I basically just fell in love with him right away. He had his eyes closed, he was so into what he was doing. I just thought, that's the guy!" Helgeland is going to be making a remake of the Moby Dick story which Heath is rumoured to be starring in as well as Peter Weir's forthcoming Master & Commander. After A Knight's Tale Heath's next film to be released is Four Feathers another historical epic opposite Wes Bentley directed by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) where he had to wear lots of beards! "I had so many beards- long hair, short hair and they were constantly changing."- poor Heathy. Heath is getting used to Hollywood now it's "like a big high school. It's not as big and scary as it makes out. I get a real kick out of it but I'm not about to fall for any hype." Heath's fame hasn't gone to his head either he's still as laid back as he was when he first started, thinking logically unlike some... "I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away. I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again...I don't want to do this for the rest of my life...I don't want to spend the rest of my youth doing this in this industry. There's so much more I want to discover." |
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| ~Biography~ |