Australian actor Heath Ledger tragically died in January of 2008 at the age of 28. On what would have been the actor’s 40th birthday, celebrities and fans have taken to social media to remember the late star.
Actress Kate Bosworth remembered Ledger in a lengthy Instagram post, looking back on the early 2000s as a young actress in Hollywood alongside Ledger and reflected on what it would’ve been like to know him as a 40-year-old man.
“Doesn’t seem so long ago we were all running around LA, shotgunned into Hollywood + popping off the new millennium’s cork, having a laugh,” Bosworth wrote. “It was a crazy time. I was literally straight out of high school, feeling young & super shy and he was always so sweet within a surreal scene.
“I really, really would have loved to have known Heath today, at 40. No limits on what he would have accomplished. Here is what I remember: he was sensitive, gentle, kind, wickedly funny. Extraordinarily special. Time goes by, his image still a teenage heartthrob. And his work.
“So brilliant + honest & he was just getting started. But to remember the Human. I was on the outer orbit. Imagine those close to the sun. Thinking of all the people who knew and loved him on this day. Man, you made one hell of a mark. xo”
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John Russo, a celebrity photographer, commented: “I remember the first time I photographed him at his apartment in Hollywood. We were in the early stages of our careers. My lighting blew out the fuses in his apartment. We could not find the fuse box. We looked and looked and looked and it was nowhere. He finally realized someone (probably him! ) hung a mirror over it. We laughed our a**es off and continued our shoot. That was the first of many great shoots over the years with Heath. Glad I knew him ❤️”
Fans flooded the internet with posts about the Dark Knight legend, with one writing: “Heath Ledger would have been 40 years old today. The world was undeserving of such a beautiful soul. Rest in paradise, handsome.”