Stars pay tribute to Ledger at memorial service

More than 100 mourners, including family and celebrities, gathered to bid farewell to actor Heath Ledger at a memorial service in his Australian home town.

The star’s former fiancee, actress Michelle Williams, arrived in a cavalcade with his parents Kim Ledger and Sally Ledger-Bell and sister Kate, at Penrhos College, a Uniting Church girls’ school in Perth, after most of the mourners had arrived.

Ms Williams, wearing dark glasses and a white dress with black trim, was not accompanied by Matilda, her two-year-old daughter fathered by Ledger.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett, who starred with Ledger in the Bob Dylan bio-flick, 'I’m Not There' – a role that earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress – was among the celebrities present.

Among the first to arrive at the high-security ceremony was Australian model Gemma Ward, a former girlfriend of the 28-year-old 'Brokeback Mountain' star who died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment last month.

Mourners filed through a screened side gate where two women dressed in black checked their identification.

Mr Ledger said the service would be followed by a private funeral in Perth. He appealed for privacy and did not disclose the time or location.

“The funeral will be very, very private and there will only be 10 people there, immediate family and nobody else,” he told a press conference outside the house of his former wife.

“It’s a pretty sad time. We’re finding it difficult to cope by ourselves, let alone cope with everybody around the world.

“Having said that, we do really appreciate the outpouring and the emotional support from all over the globe.”

Ledger’s death on January 22 spawned outpourings of grief from New York to Hollywood to Perth, on the verge of the Outback in Australia’s south west.

Family members returned home from the US this week to lay Ledger to rest following a memorial service in Los Angeles last weekend.

The Perth-based West Australian newspaper reported on Thursday that the family was hoping to hold a wake at a colonial-style waterfront restaurant at Cottesloe Beach, a resort village south of Perth that was a favourite spot of the actor’s, today.

Ms Williams, 27, and Ledger became a couple during filming of gay romance Brokeback Mountain, in which the two co-starred as husband and wife. Ledger was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the film.

They later moved to New York, where Matilda was born in October 2005.