HEATH LEDGER - LEDGER'S MOTHER SAYS GOLDEN GLOBE WILL GO TO DAUGHTER

LEDGER'S MOTHER SAYS GOLDEN GLOBE WILL GO TO DAUGHTER

The posthumous Golden Globe won by Heath Ledger will be given to his daughter Matilda, the late actor's mother has said.

Ledger won the best supporting actor award for his performance in The Dark Knight at Sunday's Golden Globe awards, almost a year after his tragic death from an accidental overdose of prescription medication.

Speaking to People magazine from her home in Perth, Australia, Ledger's mother Sally Bell said the award will "eventually" end go to Matilda, the Brokeback Mountain star's two-year-old daughter.

"At this stage she is only so young, but down the track she will have all these things," she said. "It will belong to her because she is part of him."

Ms Bell said she and her family were "bursting with pride" over her late son's Golden Globe win, which came for his performance as The Joker, a role he "loved".

She added: "It is such a fantastic and wonderful legacy for his daughter. Matilda will have so many people who will be able to speak to her about her father's abilities and [the] respect he had in the industry. That is such a wonderful legacy to leave."

When accepting the Golden Globe on behalf of Ledger, The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan offered similar sentiments, saying the Australian would be "eternally missed but never forgotten".

"All of us who worked with Heath on The Dark Knight accept with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride," he remarked.

"After Heath passed, you saw a hole ripped in the future of cinema."

The Dark Knight is to be re-released in the US on January 23rd as it bids to pass the $1 billion (£680.7 million) mark in box office takings.