Michael Caine reflects on Heath Ledger’s ‘heartbreaking’ death in new book

nypost.com:

Michael Caine is getting candid on the late Heath Ledger.The English actor, 92, released his newest memoir, “Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life,” in the US on Tuesday and spoke about his time with the late star.Caine worked with Ledger on the second film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy — 2008’s “The Dark Knight” — and remembers him as a “lovely guy, very gentle and unassuming.”But when it came to transforming into the role of the Joker, Caine recalled that Ledger could turn it on for the cameras.“It was chilling.

Absolutely floored me the first time I saw him in action — I was terrified!” he writes in the memoir.Caine notes that Ledger would go on to be remembered as a “great actor.” The Hollywood star died in New York City in January 2008 from an accidental overdose at age 28.“You think of what he might have gone on to achieve, it’s just heartbreaking.

We were all terribly shocked, and it made doing the publicity for ‘The Dark Knight’ that summer much more intense, because all the journalists wanted to talk about his death,” he pens.“I was so pleased when he was awarded the posthumous Oscar, because it must have been at least some sort of comfort for his poor family,” continues Caine. “The truth is, we’d all hoped he would win an Academy Award and thought he should, even while we were still filming the movie.”Christian Bale starred as Batman in the trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan.