Oscar Buzz Builds For Heath Ledger

It could be possible that the little gold statue that eluded the late Heath Ledger in life could be awarded to him in death.

There has been significant Oscar buzz building for Heath Ledger's role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, one of the last films he performed in. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine stoked the fire in one of the first reviews, saying, "If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up." He goes on to call Ledger "mad-crazy-brilliant".

Ledger's co-stars agree with the buzz. During a press event for the film this past weekend, castmembers like Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman have expressed desire to see a nomination come his way. Oldman said that "The Academy tends to overlook movies like this, but this acting is so good it's going to be very hard for them to avoid it."

Heath Ledger was previously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 2005 for his role in Brokeback Mountain. He lost that year to Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote. If he were to be nominated for an Oscar this year, he would be the first from a superhero film to receive one. Usually, superhero films and their actors are ignored by the Academy. One possible reason is because many of them are released outside of the official Oscar season, which runs in the last months of the year. If an Oscar is awarded to a superhero film, it is usually in the smaller categories (such as Visual Effects, which Spider-Man 2 won in 2004). His potential nomination would be the first posthumous nomination for an actor since Massimo Troisi in 1994. Other posthumous nominees include Spencer Tracy, the aforementioned Peter Finch, and James Dean.

Heath Ledger died on January 22nd, 2008, after an accidental overdose of prescription medications. Prior to his death, Heath had complained of insomnia related to the hard work put into The Dark Knight and I'm Not There.

If his performance is as fanatastic as the reviews are saying, I believe that an Oscar nod would be very much deserving, and a fantastic tribute to an actor taken way too soon.