Heath Ledger's Top Five Movies

Heath Ledger is an Australian born actor with a long, lanky frame, and intense eyes. After his Oscar nomination in 2006, Heath Ledger is undoubtedly a rising star, and one to keep an eye on. So what are his best movies to date?

10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Heath Ledger paired with Julia Stiles in this unexpectedly delightful modern remake of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Ledger played bad-boy Patrick Verona with a certain toughness that eventually gives way to the romantic hiding beneath. There was a lot of smart, tongue-in-cheek Shakespearean humor in the film, and it gave American audiences their first real glimpse at a hunky actor who had an endearing smirk, and obvious wit to boot. Heath was still dark-haired and tan in this film, giving no hint that he would eventually become a fair-haired icon. 10 Things I Hate About You was a big hit with the Gen X/Y crowd, and Heath Ledger looked to have all the makings of a teen eye-candy idol. But he was about to change that.

The Patriot (2000). Heath Ledger's next role was deliberately chosen. He wanted a serious film - a war film. Something that would keep him from being type-cast as a teen heart-throb before his career truly took off. Ledger took the role of Gabriel Martin, the headstrong patriot who defies his father to enlist in the Colonial Army and fight for American Independence. The Patriot is an underrated and engrossing tale which mostly uses the Revolutionary War as a backdrop for a tale of dark personal loss, and most of the emotion comes from Heath Ledger's character whose wife and brother are both murdered by a dastardly British Officer. Though Mel Gibson was ostensibly the star of this movie, Heath Ledger, the newcomer, steals every scene. With hair like a golden halo, fair skin, and an endearing idealism, Ledger reached the right note in a not-brilliant-script, every time. It was after his work in the Patriot that Hollywood began taking Heath Ledger seriously as an actor and not simply a teen idol.