Heath Ledger: His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death [Paperback]

John McShane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2008

With his huge charisma, vast talent, and smoldering looks lighting up the screen, Heath Ledger quickly became a Hollywood A-list following his debut in the 1999 teen film 10 Things I Hate About You. But it was his award-winning and controversial role as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain that cemented Ledger’s place in the pantheon of acting greats. He was one of the youngest actors to ever to be nominated for an Oscar, and it was on the set of Brokeback that he fell in love with his costar Michelle Williams, with whom he had a daughter in 2005. With the world at his feet and a star role in the new Batman movie—The Dark Knight—in the can, there was worldwide shock and disbelief following his sudden death in his New York apartment on January 22, 2008. Prescription drugs—found next to his body—were thought to be the cause, but mystery surrounded the circumstances. Was it an accidental death? Or were the pressures of life in the spotlight too great to bear? This is the tragic story of the brilliant actor whose light shone so brightly, but all too briefly, upon the world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John McShane is the author of two previous biographies, Didier Drogba and We All Live in a Perry Groves World.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: John Blake (June 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844546330
• ISBN-13: 978-1844546336
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,414,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I definitely do NOT recommend this book, July 13, 2008

By 

VeronaRIP - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Heath Ledger: His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death (Paperback)

I am a huge Heath Ledger fan, but I would not recommend any fan to buy this book. In fact, I would recommend against it as it is clearly meant to exploit his death.

Here are my reasons:

1) It goes off on so many tangents, it feels like a high schooler writing a 500-word essay whose scrambling to fill the requirements. There are literally pages and pages on topics that are only tangentially Heath-related. For example, Heath was born in Perth, so the author gives a two page-synopsis of how the city of Perth was discovered. How does knowing the history of Perth help me learn more about Heath Ledger? The author does this repeatedly in the book on topics such as Perth, Heath's grammar school, The Hospital in which he was born, his various co-stars, etc. To provide another example, there is a chapter that one would assume is going to discuss "the Patriot", a movie of Heath's. Instead of talking about the movie, the author starts the chapter with 2 pages about Mel Gibson's life and career, before even discussing the movie. I understand Mel was the star of the movie, but the book is supposed to be about HEATH, not MEL. I had to remind myself this is a book about HEATH because the author changes gears so many times throughout it. This appears to be a poorly edited book written quickly to capitalize on Heath's untimely, tragic death.

2) Factual errors issues. I am not talking about "rumors" that some could argue about, I mean actual FACTUAL errors that anyone could answer by doing research. Heath's best friend's name is Trevor DiCarlo, the author calls him Tom in the book. There are quite a few examples of this. If the author can't even get the name of Heath's best friend right, how are we to trust any other facts in this book?

3)Although I had seen all of Heath's movies, he spoils many of the plotlines for those who haven't seen them. Furthermore, he made one minor plotline in one of the movies sound larger than it was.

4) Not a single person was interviewed for this book. Every quote that was in there was clearly available to anyone who owns a computer and could look up Heath themselves.

5) Typos. Enough said.

6) Last, but not least. The handling of Heath's death in this book feels like it was written by the National Enquirer. He exploits every rumor about Heath and has no issue with bringing up facts that were never confirmed. At times, he brings up ones that have CLEARLY been refuted evidentially with no mention of the new evidence. For example, initial reports said "pills were strewn" but the NYC Police Commissioner made a public TV interview saying that was absolutely NOT true. The author is perpetuating a rumor that was PROVEN to be NOT true. Had he done his research properly, he would have learned that many of those initial rumors were proven to be false.

Any true Heath fan is better off not buying this book as it was clearly written to capitalize on his death.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless Reguritation, June 1, 2008

By 

Julie (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Heath Ledger: His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death (Paperback)

If you've read the articles and/or on line interviews or clicked around on youtube, there is nothing new here whatsoever. It is a reprint basically of everything already in print. Some sections, if the quotes were similar in two different interviews, the author repeats the same story and redunant quotes, as if we didn't just learn this 5 seconds ago in the previous paragraph. Poor editing and thoughtless. This author did not interview anyone for this book. There are no first hand accounts of anything. Rumors printed in the press are repeated here with no basis for fact or further investigation given to them. There are no insights into who was Heath Ledger. No gained understanding of the man. Anyone with the internet could have written this book and slammed it out in a few weeks. "Mysterious death"? Gee what a compelling and misleading title. There's no mystery. The man accidentally OD'd and anyone with a TV or magazine knows this and no new information is presented here. This book is exploitive, opportunistic and pathetic.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'd give it negative if I could., August 17, 2008

By 

phyllis (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heath Ledger: His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death (Paperback)

This book was put up for "pre-order" on Amazon less than 2 weeks after Heath's tragic passing. At that time, his final medical examiner's report had not even been released. That should tell you right there the kind of cr*p that it's spewing: the rumors, innuendo and speculation that the gossip columns dragged out from 2006 and earlier, youthful indiscretions that he had long put behind him and grown past, and which did not represent who he was. These rumors and gossip were disputed and proven incorrect, not to mention being technically libelous.

At the time of his loss, Heath was looking forward to so much. He was sober, responsible, focused and so excited about branching out in new directions. Although he had battled insomnia his entire life, according to the medical examiner's report, Heath was being responsible with his medications. The report states: "LEDGER HAD TAKEN ONLY THE PRESCRIBED THERAPEUTIC DOSES OR LESS OF HIS PRESCRIPTIONS." (ABC News)

Mixing the wrong prescriptions is a horrible tragedy that happens to over 100,000 people in the U.S. every year. Not much could make the loss of such a beautiful soul more tragic, except the vultures who jumped to ruin his reputation, hurt those who loved him, and exploit inaccurate gossip for profit.

I was fortunate to have some small contact with Heath as we knew of each other through mutual acquaintances. I still sometimes sit down at the computer and wish I'd find a message. . . Those who love him will never stop mourning the loss of someone who was so good, such a light in the lives of all he touched, and more brilliant than anyone ever realized. It hurts that so many cannot understand that about him.

If you are searching for answers, or trying to know Heath better, this is not the book you want. This book is so inaccurate, it would be laughable if it did not tarnish the legacy of a genuinely kind and gentle man who had a heart of gold.