Heath Ledger’s tragic death really shook things up, ya know? It was a year ago today. Headline News seemed to be reporting on the event all day, as if it were the new 9/11, as far as I can remember. Days and weeks went by, and you had to avoid the television — and, really, all major news outlets — if you wanted to avoid his face.

Weeks and months went by, and blah blah blah. The Dark Knight was released in theatres, and it we had a chance to see one of Ledger’s most amazing portrayals ever, as well as, hands down, the best Joker to come alive on the silver screen.

Last night, someone close to the personal lives of About 12 Minutes passed away. It’s always sad to hear about death. It’s worse when it hits close to home. I find myself thinking about other things. It’s my coping mechanism. And, yes, my coping mechanism is to think about other men. But it’s okay, because it’s more like, a man who tragically died before his time.

The first movie I saw Heath Ledger in was 10 Things I Hate About You, which looked to me like just another teen movie riding on the heels of that previous teen movie that made all these famous. Yes. Thanks to a horror-movie-spoof-turned-horror-movie, movies like this popped up everywhere.

I didn’t think much of him in that movie, because it’s just another teen movie. The Patriot changed my opinion of Ledger. How ironic: two Australian-born actors playing American Revolutionaries. He was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Brokeback Mountain, where he and Jake Gyllenhaal played gay dudes while Ann Hathaway flashed her boobs. It was around then I thought he would be a Hollywood fixture for a long time. One of the good ones. More than a Molly Ringwald, who would star in a bunch of teen movies in the 80′s but just about disappear from the spotlight just a couple years later, Ledger would be like the Tom Cruise of the current generation. Maybe less ubiquitous, and definitely less insane (although Ledger could probably do wonders with lightning super powers), but by the comparison I just mean someone who would never disappear from the spotlight.

Then the death was announced. And the TV specials. And the news reports. and all the blogs. And the Dark Knight. And the speculation. And, I guess I was wrong about him being famous for years to come. And, oh, no one really mentioned the Terry Gilliam film the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. OK, speculation on that happened, but was thin. Ledger filmed about half of the movie, and writer/director Gilliam put it on hold. What was he going to do now?

So Heath Ledger’s role as Tony, a fellow who joins this wandering troupe of magic, was recast. Now Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell also play Tony. They would play a mirror-fantasy-world version of Ledger’s character, as all of the regular-world versions of Tony were already shot with Ledger. Filming had wrapped, and the movie is to be released later this year.

This has been done before, though I can’t remember what movies. (I was trying to find one that was described to me where people of all ages, genders, and races played a little girl, but I couldn’t. Instead I found this, about how some characters are played by different actors in different movies.) Now can I remember the success of the different-actor, same-character in the movie.

At any rate, this movie is sure to be something amazing. The Dark Knight‘s Joker may have been Heath Ledger’s best performance to date, and how fitting that it is his last. But we have just one more movie to see before we can say that for sure.