Heath Who?

My friend Jesus brought up something interesting in the comments of this post about Heath Ledger's death. That, unless you're a big Ledger fan (and how can you not be), most people really can't name any movies they've seen with Ledger in them. I've seen two, and only remembered them when I looked him up on IMDB. But I watch a lot of movies, and when you watch 5-10 movies a week, you're bound to see one on accident. The Girl couldn't remember any she'd seen until I told which ones she'd seen.

And yet this guy's getting comparisons to James Dean in his cultural significance. This for a guy who, even though people can name some of his movies, I don't think a lot of people have seen (or will admit to, as he did star in Brokeback Mountain). Just for the sake of comparison, let's look at another actor.

I'm willing to bet that every man, woman, and child living in the U.S. has seen a Darren McGavin movie, THE Darren McGavin movie, if you will. I know they have. Yet I'd also be willing to bet that most people have no idea who he is or that he is currently dead. Or, take, for example, Christopher Lee, who, when he dies, probably won't get 24 hr coverage on CNN or a front page writeup in People, even though he's starred in about 150 movies.

Yet, here's a kid who's been in about 10 movies, who died of a prescription narcotic overdose, that they're just treating like he was the greatest actor ever. (And they throw Brad Renfro, who was the same age and died the same way a couple days before Heath, right out with the trash.) But, that's the media for ya: they pick and choose their darlings. Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have contributed absolutely nothing to society in about five years, yet they might as well rename People and Us Weekly to Britney and Lindsay for the amount of coverage they get. A young, attractive guy like Ledger will get more coverage than the death of a President, but a prolific, respected guy like Christopher Lee might get a blurb in the obits, because, well, he's 85 and looks like Dracula.

All this complaining will be for naught when The Dark Knight comes out, because everyone will see that. Then people will actually be able to name that Heath Ledger movie they've seen.

His legacy lives on.