Heath Ledger
When a young, hunky 20 year old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of not much depth. He has spent the past five years trying desperately to sway this image away, but this has indeed been a double-edged sword. But that comes much later in his story. Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia. As the story goes, in junior high it was compulsory to do one of two electives, either cooking or drama, and as Heath could honestly not see himself in a cooking class, he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, there was no denying that. However, the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent, possibly out of jealousy. When he was 17, he and a friend, decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams are made, or at least, where actors can possibly get their big break. However, upon arriving in Sydney with a purported 69 cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break. His first real acting job came in a low budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive cliché; a teen angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He did not have a large part in this movie. In fact, it was a very small one. The only thing of notice in his role is you get to see him get his lights punched out. After that small role, Heath auditioned for a role in a TV show called "Sweat" (1996) about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He got offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, which led him to look for other roles. He was in "Home and Away" (1988) for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws (1997). Paws was a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this did nothing other than give him a small paycheck, but nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands (1999). He went to America trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in "Roar" (1997) opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga. He could not find any American roles but then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands (1999), which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands (1999) was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a teen hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot (2000).
What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly (2003) was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain (2005), for which he was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA. Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills nearby. It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. After his death he received more than 30 posthumous awards for his portrayal as the psychopathic clown prince of crime in The Dark Knight (2008) (including the Oscar, SAG, BAFTA, and Golden Globe).
Brandon Lee
Andy Kaufman
Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin was the director of the Australia Zoo in Queensland, Australia, and host of Animal Planet's series "The Crocodile Hunter" (1996). The son of naturalists Bob and Lyn Irwin, he spent his entire life studying, living and working with animals. He grew up at the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where he took part in the daily feeding, care and maintenance of the park's many animal inhabitants. He soon became an expert on local wildlife, particularly reptiles. And (as anyone who has ever seen Steve will easily believe), by the time he was 9, his dad had taught him to jump in and catch crocodiles in the rivers in North Queensland. Together, this father-and-son team could boast that every crocodile at the Australia Zoo (numbering over 150) was either caught with their own hands, or bred and raised at the zoo.
Steve made his name in the Queensland government's rogue crocodile relocation program, where he was one of the most successful participants in this government-sponsored program, safely catching and relocating dozens of troublesome crocodiles without harm to them (or him, for the most part). Irwin's unique talents first came to the attention of the world television audience with the premiere of the first installment of "The Crocodile Hunter" (1996). Before long, a star was born -- or "hatched" to be more reptilian about it.
In 1992, Steve married Terri Raines, a young American whom he met when she visited the zoo. She co-starred with him in "The Crocodile Hunter" (1996), and traveled with him to help educate the public about the care and responsibility we all have to the natural world. They had two children, daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin, born July 24, 1998 and son Robert Clarence Irwin, born 1st of December, 2003 Sadly, Steve died on 4 September 2006, as a result of a stingray attack.
Chris Benoit
Growing up in Canada, Chris Benoit (pronounced ben-wah) was always a fan of big time wrestling. At the age of 12 he started modeling himself after his hero, The Dynamite Kid, and he worked his way inside the ring to make his pro debut in 1985. He competed in the New Japan Pro Wrestling circuit, wearing a mask and billed as "The Pegasus Kid", and after being unmasked in a bout he fought as "Wild Pegasus". He was already wrestling under the name "The Canadian Crippler" when, in a 1994 bout, he accidentally broke his opponent's neck with a back body drop (the other wrestler, Terry Michael Brunk a.k.a. Sabu, recovered and continued wrestling). Widely considered one of the best technical wrestlers, Benoit competed primarily in World Championship Wrestling until 2000, then fought in World Wrestling Entertainment until his death.
In a 1995 storyline, Benoit was portrayed as pursuing Woman, the wrestling real-life wife of wrestler Kevin Sullivan. As part of the drama, Benoit and Woman (Nancy Daus-Sullivan) flirted and held hands, and as often happens in stage romances, they fell in love off-stage. She eventually divorced Sullivan and married Benoit. In his long career, Benoit won numerous championships, and was rated #1 by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 2004. His life story and many of his best matches were presented in a 2003 video, Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story.
Benoit was scheduled to perform in a pay-per-view event on Sunday, 24 June 2007, but was replaced at the last minute because of "personal reasons". On the next night's Monday Night Raw telecast, amidst an ongoing storyline of Vince McMahon's supposed "death" from a limousine explosion, viewers might have thought it was a stunt when the words "Chris Benoit 1967-2007" appeared on screen. McMahon himself, however, broke kayfabe to announce that Benoit, along with his wife and his son, had been found dead at their suburban Atlanta home. A police detective said that the deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide; Benoit apparently strangled his wife Friday, smothered his 7-year-old son the following morning, left a Bible by both their bodies and then hanged himself on Monday, 25 June 2007.
In early reports of the crime, Benoit's son was described as retarded, with Fragile X syndrome. Family members, medical records, and the boy's teachers suggest that he had no mental or physical impairment.
Michael Jackson
American superstar Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, on August 29, 1958, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father,Joe Jackson, had been a guitarist but was forced to give up his musical ambitions following his marriage to Katherine (Scruse). Together they prodded their growing family's musical interests at home. By the early 1960s, the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.
A musical prodigy, Michael's singing and dancing talents were amazingly mature, and he soon became the dominant voice and focus of TheJackson 5. An opening act for such soul groups as the O-Jays and James Brown, it was Gladys Knight (not Diana Ross) who officially brought the group to Berry Gordy's attention, and by 1969, the boys were producing back-to-back chart-busting hits as Motown artists ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Got to Be There," etc.). As a product of the 1970s, the boys emerged as one of the most accomplished black pop/soul vocal groups in music history, successfully evolving from a group like The Temptations to a disco phenomenon.
Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the 1980s, he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group. Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling album of all time, "Thriller" in 1982. A TV natural, he ventured rather uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had much better luck with elaborate music videos.
In the 1990s, the downside as an 1980s pop phenomenon began to rear itself. Michael grew terribly child-like and introverted by his peerless celebrity. A rather timorous, androgynous figure to begin with, his physical appearance began to change drastically, and his behavior grew alarmingly bizarre, making him a consistent target for scandal-making, despite his numerous charitable acts. Two brief marriages -- one to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley -- were forged and two children produced by his second wife during that time, but the purposes behind them appeared image-oriented. Despite it all, Michael Jackson's passion and artistry as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman are unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his seriously troubled adult life.
For it all to end on June 25, 2009, with his sudden death at age 50 of a drug-induced cardiac arrest, just as he was coming out of a four-year reclusive period and rehearsing for a sold-out London concert "comeback" in July, seems uncommonly cruel and tragic. Millions upon millions of dedicated fans will remember where they were "the day Michael died".
Lady Diana
When she was about 8 she was sent to boarding school. After that she went to another boarding school and then finally to a school in Switzerland where only French was spoken. She was not what one would call an academic, and actually would be considered a high school drop out. When she was at her final boarding school in England she met Prince Charles for the first time. He was dating Diana's sister Sarah at the time and Diana was so exited about finally meeting him that she could not concentrate on her O level exams the following week.
It was only when her grandfather died that she inherited the title of Lady. Diana lived in an apartment with roommates and was a nanny and a school teacher when she got engaged to the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles. They got married in the summer of 1981 and on July 21 1982, Prince William Arther Phillip Louis was born. On September 15 1984, she had Prince Henry Charles Albert David. Her marriage started to fail then. In 1992 she and Prince Charles separated and in 1996 they divorced. She then lost the privilege of being called Her Royal Highness. In 1996 she fell in love with Dodi Fayed, the son of the owner of Harrods Department Store in London. On the night of August 31 1997, they were both tragically killed in a motor accident when the car they were in collided with a beam on the Pont D'Alma near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Her funeral was held on September 6 1997, just 9 days before Henry's 13th birthday. She is buried on an island at her ancestral home at Althorp.
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