Goodbye to Heath

Throughout the 80s and early 90s, it was not uncommon to see a front page article on celebrities dieing from drug overdoses. It was just kinda what people did back then. The majority, it seemed, were either aging child stars or fat comedians (after Bellucci, Candy and Farley, I always wondered if John Goodman was constantly looking over his shoulder).

Today, as I cruised around the gym showing off my "pythons", I kept noticing Heath Ledger's name popping up on the news scroll. I figured he was doing some Batman promo, and continued to cruise.

Later, as I stood around with a smirk next to the drinking fountain, I caught the full headline: Heath Ledger Found Dead, to which I replied "Whaaa?" I pushed my way through people running on treadmills in order to find out more.

I was honestly shocked. You just don't expect that anymore these days (aside from a few choice celebrities. Now I never considered myself a Heath fan. I remember seeing him in 10 Things I Hate About You in high school and thinking "Who's this jackass?" He then later appeared in A Knight's Tale, to which I thought "Hey, it's that jackass from that girly movie". That's the basic history of me and Heath.

When I saw he was playing The Joker in the new Batman movie, I had my doubts, especially because he was going up against Jack, and nobody messes with Jack. He did a fine job in Brokeback Mountain (despite only having four or five lines), But c'mon... The Joker?

Then I saw the trailer and the posters:

...and frankly, I got excited to see what he could do with the character. It looks pretty twisted, and that's ok by me.

So I'm sorry to see him go, as I think I was about to start liking the guy. Who knows what he and others like Chris Farley would have gone on to do if they hadn't overdosed (Farley would probably the same old movies with David Spade... I approve!), but it's always sad to see a promising celebrity taken before his time, while others prove time and again that they're never going to die.