Heath Ledger has posthumously won a Golden Globe for his universally lauded portrayal of “The Joker” in “The Dark Knight”.
Ledger who died in January of last year due to a drug overdose was an early sentimental favourite to take out an Academy Award and this Golden Globe win only solidifies those claims.
Up against Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder), Robert Downey Jr (Tropic Thunder), Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), the Australian actor drew a standing ovation and quiet reverence from his peers.
Speculation surrounded who would accept the award on Ledger’s behalf with some insiders suggesting that “Brokeback Mountain” co-star Jake Gyllenhaal would do the honours. In the end Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan accepted the award saying: “All of us who worked with Heath on ‘The Dark Knight’ accept with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride…After Heath passed, you saw a hole ripped in the future of cinema. He will be eternally missed, but he’ll never be forgotten.”
With one of the most memorable performances in modern cinema Nolan’s sentiments could not be truer.
