Another posthumous award for Heath

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The late Heath Ledger got a standing ovation from his Hollywood colleagues after winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his madly villainous Joker in The Dark Knight.

“This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by all you here tonight, his peers within an industry he so loved,” said his father, Kim Ledger, who accepted the award with his family.

“Tonight, we are choosing to celebrate and be happy for what he has achieved,” Sally Bell, Heath’s mother, said of her son.

Sister Kate Ledger said the family was accepting the award on behalf of “your beautiful Matilda,” Ledger’s three-year-old daughter with Michelle Williams.

Ledger, an Australian. recreated the Batman nemesis as a new-age villain, complete with ironic tales of emotional woe and garish makeup.

Ledger became the second posthumous acting winner in Academy Award history. Peter Finch won the first for 1976’s Network.

Ledger’s performance already had received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards. He was nominated previously for his role as a ranch hand involved in a secret gay relationship in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain.