A Tribute to Heath Ledger: The Illustrated Biography

by Chris Roberts

This tribute to Heath Ledger follows his rise to fame from his early beginnings as a teenager on Australian TV to his tragic, untimely death in 2008. It covers his all his films; his critical and box office successes; his high-profile romances, including Michelle Williams; with whom he had a daughter.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Chris Roberts lives in West London. He has written about music, films and books for innumerable publications and websites and interviewed everyone from David Bowie to Janet Jackson. He was the editor of Idle Worship, hailed in the New York Times as ‘the most original book about rock ‘n’ roll ever’, and edited Blondie's Panic of Girls magazine at the band's request.
Often appearing on TV and radio, he has also published books on Kate Moss, Lou Reed, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Abba, Talk Talk, Scarlett Johansson, Pharrell Williams, the Gothic arts and many others.

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Largely I did not feel that this book delivered what it promised. I did not gain much insight into Heath's life aside from his movie roles. The entire book felt like the author went to Heath's IMDB page and summarized it. Each movie he was in was summarized, with many having long-winded quotes from the movies themselves. Heath was a great actor and I greatly enjoy his movies, but how is this a biography of Heath exactly? He was more than his movies. Simply, this book did not do Heath justice.

Further pet peeves regarding the book include the odd selection of photos. Some were nice choices, but largely I felt the photo choices were questionable especially for an "illustrated biography". Also, I did not need mini bios of actors he worked with, this was supposed to be a biography about Heath. The title should be "The Movie Biography," as you learn very little about Heath the individual.

[Emma's In Stock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heath Ledger is one of my favorite actors, so, naturally, I wanted to read as much as I could about him.

This book is neatly written. Even though it may leak bias here and there in movie reviews, Ledger’s life remains unchanged as the author recounts every movie and project he’d done.

I don’t have a lot to say about this book, just because I don’t really know what to say when reviewing a biography. However, all I can say is that now an eerie chill runs down my spine whenever I see Ledger in The Dark Knight.

P.S. The Joker role is cursed. Change my mind.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this Big Book! Felt like a kid checking it out from the library! Loved all the pictures of this incredible soul, lost too soon. Great short biography. And he's cute to boot!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

not what i was expecting but still good.

[Richella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a skimming across the top of a biography. Great pictures though.

[Angelique · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meine zweite Ledger Biographie und wiederum bin ich grundlegend enttäuscht. Dennoch muss ich zugeben, dass mir diese Biographie immernoch besser gefallen hat, als diejenige von J.Robb.
Diese Biographie konzentriert sich - wenn man denn bei einem so kurzen Werk von "konzentrieren" sprechen kann - auf Heaths Filme und seine Beziehung zu Michelle Williams, sein Verhältnis zu seiner Tochter Mathilda. Von dem Cover angesprochen, war ich auch von einigen Illustrationen innerhalb des Buches angetan, auch wenn hier meine Erwartungen wiederum die Realität übertroffen haben.
Inhaltlich gab es kaum etwas auszusetzen, lediglich zwei grobe Fehler bei Filmzitaten bzw. -bildunterschriften und ein paar schlecht gewählte Ausdrücke (wobei dies auch an der Übersetzung liegen kann).
Grundlegend ein gutes Buch für einen ersten Überblick über Heaths Leben und seine Filme (wobei einige kleinere Produktionen sogar nur am Rand erwähnt wurden). Überraschenderweise fand ich sogar einige lustige oder kurriose Infos, die ich in der langen Biographie Robbs nicht gelesen habe. Deshalb kann man meine Wertung als 2.5 Sterne lesen.