The sudden death of Australian actor Heath Ledger has come as a shock to his friends and family, and to the acting community who were inspired by his natural, understated talent.

The actor was found unconscious in his Soho apartment in New York city at 9:35am (NZT) yesterday. The cause of his death will be released in 10 – 14 days, but speculation has been fueled by the presence of prescription medication in the apartment.

This young, bright star had many powerful roles and successful blockbuster movies to his name, playing both support and lead roles in a diverse collection of films.

Of his film choices, Ledger said:

“I feel like I’m wasting time if I repeat myself. I can’t say I’m proud of my work. It’s the same with everything I do: the day I say ‘It’s good’ is the day I should start doing something else.”

• Candy (2006) – Playing a poet, Ledger’s character falls for an art student who is attracted to his bohemian lifestyle.
• Brokeback Mountain (2005) – Ledger famously played a gay cowboy in this poignant tale and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.
• Ned Kelly (2003) – A biopic following the life of a legendary outlaw, played by Ledger with support from Orlando Bloom.
• Monster’s Ball (2001) – Ledger played a supporting role in this Oscar-winning tale of racism and love.
• The Patriot (2000) – The young Aussie actor cemented his place in Hollywood with a role in this powerful tale of family loyalty and honour.
• 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) – A modern take on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, in which Ledger plays an outsider with an infamous past.

Find these and other great DVD movies and movie theatres in the NZS.com Directory.

“In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander. I have modest abilities; I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed.”

Best remembered for conquering Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, Hillary’s achievement was one of the defining moments of the 20th century and an event that captured the imaginations of people around the globe. Following his achievement, Hillary committed his life and role as a famous New Zealander to helping others – adopting humanitarian and environmental causes, and directing his energy towards assisting Nepalese communities. Through the Himalayan Trust, Hillary helped to build over thirty schools, twelve medical clinics and two hospitals in Nepal, remaining active in fundraising and supervision of humanitarian projects for over four decades.

Life began humbly for this great man, who as a boy dreamed of a life as an adventurer. At the age of sixteen, he discovered a love of mountaineering and a natural strength and endurance that was a perfect match for this endeavour. Working as a beekeeper, Hillary had bigger dreams. Even before World War II, he told a friend: “Some day I’m going to climb Everest.” After an accident which saw him discharged from the Air Force, he went on to climb Mount Cook and several other peaks in the Southern Alps, eventually reaching the top of Everest in 1953 with Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. Their achievement was announced on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation: Hillary was knighted, Tenzing was awarded the George medal, and the pair were celebrated as heroes around the world.

Hillary went on to lead an expedition across the Anatarctic to the South Pole, as well as undertaking further climbs in the Himalayas and leading a journey by jetboat up the river Ganges.

In his achievements and through his innate personal strengths, Sir Edmund Hillary was a figure of inspiration to us all.

Image from Flickr.

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How do you measure success? It’s a difficult thing to pin down, but I’d say you’re a star if you’ve got your own page on the sprawling, constantly evolving online encyclopedia that is Wikipedia.

Unlike popular social networking sites, which allow you to post your own profile pages, Wikipedia has kept a firm control over such ego-building tactics. If you want to make it as a famous person on the Wiki, bear in mind that entries can’t include original research, must contain verifiable facts and should be written objectively. Entries can be updated, changed or removed by users.

So, if someone thinks you’re worthy, you’ll end up with your own page. In theory. Although you can just as quickly lose it, as Chelsea Kate Isaacs (a once-famous hand model) discovered; an entry on her achievements was added by an ardent chirophiliac, but removed after just a few days.

Wikipedia founder, Jim Wales, says:

“If someone is notable or successful in their field, they’ll end up in Wikipedia.”

And the number of biographical pages on the site is growing, fast. At last count, in September, there were 224,785 pages about living people on the site, up from 177,512 in January. As the eighth most popular destination for American Internet users, Wikipedia has a whopping 52 million unique visitors each month… or 210 million worldwide… so if you’re featured, you’re seen by the world.

Check out the list of famous New Zealanders who are now Wiki-stars and our own NZS.com famous people.

One of my heroes is Wellingtonian, Sir William Pickering; he was the Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1954 to 1976 and established himself as a senior NASA luminary. Pickering was extensively involved in America’s unmanned programme to explore the Solar System and appeared on the cover of TIME magazine twice. In my opinion, he’s right up there with Sir Ed but doesn’t get the same recognition. As an aside, I think New Zealanders generally don’t recognise our heroes enough (unless they play rugby), so it’s superb to see The New Zealand Edge site celebrate inspirational New Zealanders.

Many talented Kiwis have made significant contributions to space research:

• Frank Bateson, OBE, was instrumental in establishing the Mount John Observatory near Lake Tekapo and he founded the Variable Star Section (VSS) of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. The VSS observed variable stars and collated reports on stars from both professional and amateur observers throughout the world.
• Professor John Hearnshaw is a Professor of Astronomy at Canterbury University who is internationally recognised for his research on extrasolar planets.
• Lester Waugh emigrated to Britain in 1974 and then went on to become an engineering manager in charge of designing the ExoMars Rover. For five years he had worked with a team on getting a small British spacecraft on to the surface of Mars. It got there, but unfortunately that was as far as things went, as nobody was able to contact ‘Beagle 2′ once it landed.
• Professor Beatrice Tinsley performed ground-breaking research on how galaxies change and evolve over time and became Professor of Astronomy at Yale University.
• Though not technically a New Zealander, former Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis was a graduate of Otago University and later went on to serve as the Cook Islands’ High Commissioner to New Zealand. During his early career he became a Space Surgeon for NASA and researched the biological effects of humans in space.

Check out this interesting article on New Zealand astronomy which mentions many key New Zealand astronomers.

And what about future New Zealand space heroes? In the past, space has been dominated by a select few government funded agencies, but now we’re starting to see a vibrant private space industry developing internationally. New Zealanders will certainly have a part to play in this.

Whether our forefathers came from Hawaii, Taiwan, England or wherever – they were explorers. New Zealand is geographically located on the fringe, the edge of civilization; those early explorers and immigrants couldn’t go any further. With our psyche and spirit of endeavor, I believe this century will see New Zealanders play a significant role in the physical exploration of space. Exploration is genetically ingrained in our population and space is the next frontier.