The 81st Annual Academy Awards2009

Kevin Kline:
In a year of striking film images perhaps the most unforgettable is that of a man. His face smeared in clown makeup, gleefully sticking his head out of a speeding car, relishing the night wind and reveling at the chaos he has unleashed on the streets of Gotham city. Menacing, mercurial, droll, and diabolical. Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight kept us all on edge anxious to see what act of appalling mischief he might commit next. With this bravura performance as well as with a wide range of other roles to which he put his unique signature. Heath Ledger has left us an original and enduring legacy.

[applause]

Alan Arkin:
[He opens the envelope] And the oscar goes to Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight