NEED TO KNOW
- Shaun Cassidy recalls seeing Heath Ledger, who was largely unknown, for the first time, and insisting the network bring him to America to test for ‘Roar’
- Ledger broke into the American acting scene with the Fox show, which led him to the big screen
- “I don’t want to say we discovered him, but we kind of did. I mean, we certainly introduced him to America,” Cassidy said
Heath Ledger was celebrated for his work on The Dark Knight and Brokeback Mountain, but America’s introduction to him came via a short-lived TV show called Roar, which Shaun Cassidy created.
“I bought him his first plane ticket to America. He’d never been,” Cassidy told PEOPLE of the late Academy Award-winning star. “I don’t want to say we discovered him, but we kind of did. I mean, we certainly introduced him to America.”
Cassidy, a GRAMMY-nominated former teen idol who went on to produce and create TV shows, wrote Roar in the late ‘90s, which centered on a young Irishman freeing his land from the Roman Empire.
“It was Braveheart light for a TV show,” Cassidy said of the show that aired on Fox for 13 episodes in 1997.
After unsuccessfully scouring both Ireland and America for an actor to play the lead role of Conor, Cassidy headed to Australia and saw Ledger with the help of a local casting director. Impressed with what he saw in the Perth native, Cassidy immediately called the TV studio.
“I said to Warner Bros., ‘You have to fly this guy over. This guy’s going to be a big deal,’ ” Cassidy said.
While screen-testing the future A Knight’s Tale star, network executives were mesmerized, and Cassidy recalled adult women “falling all over themselves.”
“He had such gravitas for an 18-year-old, and he could carry himself, and yet he was like this surfer kid, really sweet, really good heart,” said the “Da Doo Ron Ron” singer, who sets out on his The Road To Us tour in September, his first full tour since 1980.
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Ten years after that screen test, in 2008, Ledger died of a drug overdose at the age of 28.
Still, Cassidy will never forget Ledger’s presence on his TV show.
“I’m sorry that show didn’t go longer, but he was so good in it, and it was one of the best experiences I had,” Cassidy said. “And after that, he got 10 Things I Hate About You, and he was off and running. God bless him.”
While Cassidy brought the celebrated actor to the States, he won’t take credit for Ledger’s success, saying, “He would’ve happened with or without me, for sure. I’m grateful that I was there at the early part of his career.”