Last Showdown | When Actors Just Completed The Movie | Under Lens

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight: Much fabled last performance as maniacal Joker and stories which followed to release of The Dark Knight, rarely an actor literally overshadowed the lead actor by his real life absence. Bruce Wayne saw the real world. Images are revered. Heath Ledger whose claim to fame before Joker came along was his role in eternally romantic Brokeback Mountain. When Joker came by, he was a difficult choice for many film buffs but Heath was able to play that character even better than any predecessor with his determination and reclusiveness. As drug overdose news came by, people were not surprised. Such was Joker’s impression.

 

Balraj Sahni – Garam Hava: Traumatized by his own daughter’s death, one of the finest actors of Hindi Cinema played an intense role of a Muslim trader who is not ready to go to Pakistan. For him, India remains land of dreams and aspirations. Place he calls country. That must be a poignant moment when he played the scene where his on-screen daughter dies as well. Balraj Sahni’s Salim Mirza is one of Indian Cinema’s iconic character who embodies the torment of millions who suffered the birth of nation by means of partition and were forced to keep a strong face. In an alternate world, they too would have cried profusely in the darkest and remotest corner of house.

 

Spencer Tracy – Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner: Known for a likeable personality exuding drama and bravado without gruesomeness, Spencer Tracy, in last leg of his career, chose films which had an everlasting impact on the social dynamics. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner was one such film. As Matt Drayton he highlights the dilemma of a father who is at crossroads of his own teachings. As an open-minded person he always asked his daughter to treat people as equals irrespective of race and creed. But he never imagined that his daughter can fall in love with someone who is not white. Tracy and Hepburn strongly believed in the civil rights and despite of Tracy’s failing health, they fought his illness and completed the film.