Heath Ledger

A beautiful color 8″ x 10″ lab photograph from the acclaimed 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, signed by the late Heath Ledger (in white Sharpie) and Jake Gyllenhaal (in dark red Sharpie). Uncommon together and scarce in light of Ledger’s early death. Slight emulsion tear at top edge due to prior glass adhesion, can be matted out nicely.

Heath Ledger (1979-2008) was an Australian  television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career. His work encompassed nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster’s Ball (2001), A Knight’s Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the 2005 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the 2006 “Best Actor” award from the Australian Film Institute and was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor as well as the 2006 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Ledger died at the age of 28, from an accidental “toxic combination of prescription drugs.” A few months before his death, he had finished filming his penultimate performance, as the Joker in The Dark Knight, his death coming during editing of the film and casting a shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $180 million production. At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, he had completed about half of his work performing the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam’s film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Jacob “Jake” Gyllenhaal (1980-) is an American actor who began acting at age ten. He has appeared in diverse roles since his first lead role in 1999’s October Sky, followed by the 2001 indie cult hit Donnie Darko, in which he played a psychologically troubled teen and onscreen brother to his real-life sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. In the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow he portrayed a student caught in a cataclysmic global cooling event, alongside Dennis Quaid as his father. He then played against type as a frustrated Marine in Jarhead (2005). The same year, he won critical acclaim as Jack Twist in the film Brokeback Mountain opposite Heath Ledger.

Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American romantic-drama film that depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1981.

In Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play young men who meet as sheep herders and embark upon a sexual relationship that begins in the summer of 1963 and continues until the death of Gyllenhaal’s character in 1981. The film was often referred to in the media with the shorthand phrase “the gay cowboy movie,” though there was differing opinion on the sexual orientation of the characters. Gyllenhaal was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor for his performance, but lost to George Clooney for Syriana. Gyllenhaal also won the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for the same role and received a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Best Film Ensemble nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. Also for Brokeback Mountain, he and Ledger won an MTV Movie Award for “Best Kiss” in 2006.

The film was directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee from a screenplay by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, which they adapted from the short story “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams.

Brokeback Mountain won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and was honored with Best Picture and Best Director accolades from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Golden Globe Awards, Producers Guild of America, Critics Choice Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards among many other organizations and festivals. Brokeback Mountain had the most nominations (eight) for the 78th Academy Awards, where it won three: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. The film was widely considered to be a front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Picture, but lost to Crash. At the end of its theatrical run, Brokeback Mountain ranked eighth among the highest-grossing romantic dramas of all time.

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