Director Spoke to Ledger Night Before His Death

THURSDAY JANUARY 24, 2008 09:15 AM EST

Heath Ledger's director on the 2002 adventure movie Four Feathers, Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, had plans to meet up with his former star – until tragic fate intervened.

"I last spoke to him the night before he died. I had just arrived in New York last night, he said he could not see me that night but really wanted to meet me the next day," Kapur, 62, whose films also include the two Elizabeth movies starring Cate Blanchett, says in a posting on his personal Web site.

Adds Kapur: "He made me promise that I would call him in the morning and wake him up. I tried. Little did I know that his soul had already left his body."

Lamenting his loss, Kapur writes, "In Heath I have lost a younger brother He was one the most gentle, the most honest, most caring and most compassionate persons I had met. And one of the most honest actors I worked with."

Of Ledger's talent," I often told him that he had the ability to completely bare his soul in front of the camera, and all I needed to do was make sure the camera could look into his eyes, and through his eyes, the audience could clearly look into his soul," says Kapur.

The moviemaker concludes, "Farewell Heath. I always knew you had an ancient soul. I always said you had a wisdom beyond your years. And somehow I always knew that your spirit was too restless. Goodbye, my brother."