Check out the Heath Ledger gallery
Named after the villainous romantic hero of Wuthering Heights, Heath Ledger might not have the black eyes or the dark brooding looks of Cathy’s lover, but he’s one hot blond babe and a lot nicer to boot. We’d chase Heath over a windswept, er, heath any day – even up a mountain for that matter.
The hunk is currently breaking hearts in gay western Brokeback Mountain (nicknamed Bareback Mountain in some circles) alongside cutie Jake Gyllenhaal and the beautiful boys' sex scenes have had many a homo swooning with delight and straights running for the hills.
Heath was ordered to the gym to bulk-up for his gay cowboy role and seems to have taken the liking boys thing to heart, openly admitting that Jake is a “cute” actor - let’s not mention the fact that he almost broke Jake’s nose in one of the kissing scene by making it a little too rough! Grrrr, go tiger.
It’s time to climb that mountain and get lost in the arms of a big, hunky, Marlboro Man cowboy…
Name
Heathcliff Andrew Ledger
Vitals
Born 4 April 1979 in Perth, Australia.
Famous For
Heath played a gay Olympic cyclist in the first Australian TV drama to boast a queer character. The show was appropriately called Sweat and he panted his way through the series sufficiently enough to get the lead part in the medieval drama Roar, which had Heath only wearing a loincloth most of the time.
Catching the eye of Hollywood in 10 Things I Hate About You he decided not to typecast himself as a teen movie heartthrob and rejected numerous offers of similar roles. A year of eating instant noodles and water until the right part came along paid off when Mel Gibson asked him to play his son in The Patriot.
More dressing up followed in A Knight’s Tale and the Grimm fairy tale epic Brother Grimm, and he’ll soon be making hearts flutter again in the big budget film about one of the greatest lovers of all time, Casanova. We certainly wouldn’t mind being seduced by this lothario!
Of course, he’s just made homo humping history with Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (read our review of the original short story), the story of a 20-year love affair between two cowboys.
“The great thing was that we decided – well he grabs me and he slams me up against the wall and kisses me. And then I grab him and I slam him up against the wall and I kiss him. And we were doing take after take after take.” That’s what we like to hear. They obviously called it ‘brokeback’ for a reason and a bit of rough sex is good for the soul, after all.
Gus van Sant was originally set to direct Brokeback Mountain and some people would have been a lot more comfortable if he had - despite the critical acclaim Ang Lee's direction has so far won. During filming there were concerning reports that Lee had decided that the sex wasn’t a priority (!) and the worry was that the rumpy pumpy would all end up on the cutting room floor alongside Colin’s todger from A Home at the End of the World.
By all reports the sex is still there and thank God for that because works of great artistic beauty (and we’re not talking about the film) should be considered public property and available for everyone to see. Personally, we’re looking forward to the DVD release to check out the deleted scenes! Hob knob anyone?
Worth Knowing
Heath has a bit of a thing for the more mature lady. “I prefer to date older women because they don’t try to act older like younger girls but because they try to act younger.” Confused? Guess his last girlfriend, the 36-year old actress Naomi Watts, didn’t get it either because they split up last year after a two year relationship.
On the paparazzi he told the National Post, “Most of the time you don’t even know they’re there. If I want to swim naked in my pool, I’m still going to do it.” [There won’t be a single copy of ‘Photography for Dummies’ left on the shelves. Ed.]
He has a small strawberry birthmark on his inner left thigh. [Yep, we got the last one! Ed.]
He was the original choice to play Alexander before Colin Farrell took the role. At least he’s a natural blond.
Screen test audiences screamed with laughter instead of fear at the ‘scary’ bits during the occult thriller Sin Eater.
He’s a self-taught tap dancer. Shake that booty Heath.
Availability
Heath loves musicals and when asked by TeenMag.com who his first celebrity crush was on he replied, “Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz in just that little blue cotton dress.” He’s obviously living in the closet of denial; so don’t be fooled by the older woman thing.
Give Me More
Gentlemen really do prefer blondes!
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