Just hours after he died prematurely and alone, Heath Ledger’s name was already entered on the online Wikipedia listing for people who died before the age of 30, and who were known for reasons other than their death. It’s a long list of popular rock musicians, actors, stage performers and other various celebrities who lived life in the spotlight but always seemed to battle personal issues. Accidents and illness take some, particularly those who made their name from sporting prowess, yet the words “drugs” and “overdose” crop up repeatedly, particularly alongside the names of actors and musicians, Ledger included.

No matter how they die, the sadness at the waste of talent, and the grief of admirers and fans who have invested parts of their own identity into their adored idol, builds a glamour around the death of these idolized individuals that staples their careers with a premature death.

Ledger, the on-the-rise actor, was still only 28-years-old and was the headline of the much-anticipated Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” playing the sociopathic Joker. It’s been a little over a week since he was found dead of an apparent overdose on sleeping pills in his apartment, but has already gone from movie star to cultural touchstone.

In just 48 hours, his memorial page on Facebook had over 30,000 members. TMZ, an entertainment company, had generated over 74 pages of condolences on their Web site comments, and hundreds of eulogies and goodbyes appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald’s Web site, Ledger’s native Australian newspaper. That’s not even including the questions, mystique and hype surrounding Ledger’s role in the Dark Knight and what it will do to boost the number of people who will go to see the movie in theaters when it premiers in July.

What accounts for this need to pay public tribute? Successive generations have felt that impulse – the need to make sense of untimely death, and even justify it, by celebrating the dead young person in an outsize way, or even to attend the funeral of someone they don’t know. It’s been happening for years; the grunge listeners of Generation X lost Kurt Cobain when he committed suicide in 1994. The lead singer of Nirvana still remains an iconic legend in rock music, given his album sales that make him one of the most lucrative musicians today.

Other icons over the years – James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Pressley, Freddy Mercury and Chris Farley – are all celebrities whose careers are still talked about today. Their movies still have cult followings, and their music is still bought, downloaded and listened to at Tribute Concerts to this day.

Death and suicide is a very frightening thing to all of us. It is an unknown dimension that is talked about and experienced by every person, whether directly or indirectly. People are drawn to entertainment, they are drawn to other people, and they are drawn to the unknown world that is death. It’s why we live vicariously through TV when a natural disaster occurs, it’s why we read the obituaries in the newspaper, it’s why we become fascinated with the premature deaths of celebrities, like we are now with Ledger.

The death of a star actor frightens us and fascinates us. The death of someone cut down in the prime of life brings home our own mortality, and it makes us realize that they, just like us, are not immortal.

The death of Heath Ledger is unfortunate; I’m sorry to see his family and his two-year-old daughter have to continue living without someone who was destined to become a very fine actor for a number of years. But for Ledger, like other young icons who died prematurely, their careers can be compared to the story of Achilles, who was told by his mother that he could either take the safe road, stay home from war against Troy and drift off with history, or he could fight and risk his life and one day become a legend.

Achilles chose the latter; he died in battle and remains a popular legend to this day. Like him, Ledger chose gutsy performances like a drug-addict in Candy, a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, and the much-hyped villain in “The Dark Knight,” rather than the easy roles. Those risks, coupled with his popularity and successful career that was just beginning to take off, proves that only the good die young.

Evan Powers is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].