Heath Ledger, 1979–2008

Tucked away in the final vignette of the gag reel from Lords of Dogtown - Catherine Hardwicke's 2005 dramatisation of the skate-punk phenomenon that burst to life in California around 1975 and has deeply influenced fashion, youth culture and the sneaker-marketing wars ever since - is a surreal and strangely prescient moment. The actor Michael Angarano, who plays one of the teen skaters in the film, has dressed up as the character Heath Ledger plays: Skip Engblom, the messy, eccentric mentor figure who gathered a motley bunch of teen misfits around him and turned them into both alternative-culture superstars and cash cows. Angarano wears the full Engblom costume, the flared jeans, the flowery open shirt, the dishevelled blond surfie wig. At first glance you assume it is Ledger having fun in an outtake. But it is Angarano mimicking Ledger mimicking Engblom, the drunken performance getting more over the top as he moves towards us, the extras laughing nervously because they know it is not real and yet the camera is rolling. At the last moment Angarano comes as close to the camera as he can and says, dropping suddenly out of the Ledger character and looking straight down the barrel, "Hey Heath, we're gonna miss you man, yeah." The gag reel fades to black.