Posted by: Christine on Jan 28th, 2008

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The Prime Minister of Australia, Heath Ledger’s home country, has confirmed that there will be a public memorial service in Los Angeles for the actor Heath Ledger. Ledger passed away last week in New York City, and no definite cause of death has been determined (although speculation runs rampant).

There was a private memorial held in New York City over the weekend for Ledger’s family and friends, as well as his ex-fiancee Michelle Williams. The family will also be having a funeral back home in Australia.

This week’s Entertainment Weekly has a “remembering Heath Ledger” article as their cover story, and there was even a Facebook group created to organize a memorial of wearing black on Friday, January 25th to remember the actor.

The most touching memorial I have seen so far has appeared on the WhySoSerious.com marketing site for The Dark Knight. The site has previously been used to interact with fans by giving them “games from The Joker,” who is played by Ledger in the film.

The new image shows the site as it was, with the addition of a small black ribbon (seen at left). Fans can only assume this is in tribute to the actor, who was getting fantastic responses from fellow industry folks about his portrayal of The Joker.

Fellow actors have also been memorializing Heath, including Daniel Day Lewis who said,

I never met him. I thought he was beautiful. I just have a very strong feeling that I would have liked him very much as a man.

I believe many people around the world who had never met Heath Ledger, myself included, can connect with that statement. It has been hard as a fan to mourn the loss of someone you never met in person, but that you feel connected with nonetheless. It’s somehow comforting to know others feel the same way.

UPDATE: (1/28 - 8:15pm) Another Heath Ledger memorial has been brought to my attention - Warner Bros. has a tribute to Heath on their TheDarkKnight.com site.