Early life - Heath Andrew Ledger

Early life - Heath Andrew Ledger

Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia , the son of Sally Ledger Bell (née Ramshaw), a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a race car driver and mining engineer. Ledger's mother is descended from the Clan Campbell of Scotland and his father comes from a family known in Perth for their ownership of the Ledger Engineering Foundry.The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust was named after his great-grandfather. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School, in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10.

Ledger was an avid chess player, winning a state junior chess championship at age ten, and as an adult often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park.
Ledger has an older sister, Kate. Their parents divorced when he was eleven. Other siblings include two half-sisters, Ashleigh Bell (b. 1989), his mother's daughter with her second husband and his stepfather Roger Bell, and Olivia Ledger (b. 1997), his father's daughter with second wife and his stepmother Emma Brown.