10 Straight Actors Who Played Gay Roles To Perfection

10. Heath Ledger: Brokeback Mountain

It’s sad to look back at the career of Heath Ledger. All it does is to remind you of the stunning career he could have had if he hadn’t died far too young of a drug overdose. Known for vanishing into parts, Ledger’s best role may well be in this 2005 acclaimed Ang Lee drama, Brokeback Mountain. The story is by now famous; Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are ranchers working together. What is just one night of passion expands to a decade’s long affair they have to keep quiet. Each has a female love (Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, respectively) but they just can’t quit each other. Yet they know they can’t be open given the times. Ledger is amazing in the part, clearly heartbroken when Gyllenhaal wants to devote himself to a girlfriend, and when his wife discovers the truth of his life and the heartbreaking conclusion. Ledger didn’t win the Oscar for this but most hold it as his finest role and another tragic sign of what kind of career could have been.