Late Australian actor Heath Ledger has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance as the joker in the Dark Knight at the 81st Academy Awards in Hollywood last night. The best actor award went to Sean Penn for Milk.

Ledger who died 13 months from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 28 was the second actor to win an Oscar posthumously. Fellow Australian Peter Finch was the first in 1977 when he won best actor for the film Networking, but died three months earlier from a heart attack.

Heath’s father, Kim Ledger, and mother, Sally Bell, and sister Kate accepted the award.

“This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here – his peers – within an industry he so loved. Thank you,” Kim Ledger said.

He really put everything he had into making that film, he played the joker brilliantly, I don’t think it would’ve been the same without him.

Congrads Heath you deserve this!