4. He was engaged to American actress Michelle Williams and they had a daughter together called Matilda Rose, born in 2005. Michelle and Heath starred in the controversial Ang Lee drama/romance that told the passionate gay love story between two cowboys – played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie also starred Anne Hathaway. Gyllenhaal is Matilda's godfather.

5. Brokeback Mountain won 3 Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Music. The movie had 5 more nominations: Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Movie and Best Cinematography.

6. The movie also won MTV’s Best Kiss Award- for one of the passionate kissing scenes between Ledger and Gyllenhaal.

7. Brokeback Mountain was partly spoofed in a 2010 Turkish western comedy written, directed by and starring Cem Yilmaz. Yilmaz plays one of the two Turkish Ottoman Empire officials trying to survive in the Wild West. Since he and his friend lost a precious stone, they can’t go home. The town’s sheriff wants to get rid of them so he asks for a list of most vicious assassins. But of course the audience cracks up laughing when they see that the assassin of choice has the nickname Brokeback. Instead of a deadly hunter, we get a gay cowboy who is more than impressed by Yilmaz’s looks.

8. Ledger won Oscar with his second and final nomination. He won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight, the second Batman movie in the series directed by Inception writer/director, Memento co-writer/director Christopher Nolan.

9. When the Academy Winners were announced in 2008, Heath Ledger was already dead.

10. The fact that Ledger’s death became more of a phenomenon than the film itself pissed off Christian Bale, who plays Batman.

11. Ledger’s Joker also won him the Best Villain Award – a category of MTV Movie Awards. His more prestigious and serious awards include SAG, BAFTA, and Golden Globe, all for the same role.

12. Batman The Dark Knight’s impressive cast also includes Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Jake Gyllenhaal’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart and Cillian Murphy, who makes a guest appearance as Scarecrow. His Scarecrow was the main villain in Batman Begins, Nolan’s first Batman film. Murphy also co-stars in Inception.

13. Heath Ledger was known for his extreme dedication to his parts.

14. When Ledger died before finishing the Terry Gilliam movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the fantastic nature of the film enabled the director to divide Ledger’s roles into two parts – the one in the fantasy, and the one in the real world. His fantasy roles were assumed by three separate famous actors, who happened to be good friends of Ledger: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. This is Ledger’s last movie.

15. One of Ledger’s big breaks was in The Patriot (2000), a Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, 2012) film starring Mel Gibson. The movie was nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Original Score. The movie told the tale of an ex-soldier father who wanted to protect his sons from War but couldn’t help the overly patriotic enthusiasm of his oldest son, played by Heath Ledger.

16. Ledger died in 2008, at the age of 28, due to an accidental drug overdose (a mixture of anti-depressants with sleeping pills).