Heath Ledger's Dark Knight performance isn't Hollywood's first posthumous success

The Dark Knight may open for the masses this Friday, but Heath Ledger—whose premature death earlier this year caused a tabloid frenzy—is already receiving what are quite possibly his best reviews ever. Los Angeles–based blogger Sam Rubin announced in late June: "I just returned from a screening and I wanted to commit this to a public forum as quickly as possible ... Ledger is THE BEST villain in a superhero movie of all time." More influential critics have shied away from prophesizing outright that Ledger's will win a posthumous Oscar, but their praise is still overwhelming: "Ledger makes [past Jokers] look like, well, clowns" (Variety). "Magnificent" (Time). (Interesting tidbit: The film is dedicated not only to Ledger, but also to a British technician who accidentally died during filming.)

Contrary to popular belief, however, Dark Knight is not his last movie. Ledger passed away midway through production of Terry Gilliam's fantasy epic The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he plays an outsider who joins a theater troupe led by the magic mirror–toting Doctor Parnassus. Ledger's death could have brought production to a halt, but the fantastical disposition of the story allowed him to be replaced by the delicious trio of Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Johnny Depp in the "otherworldly" scenes. (Ledger's scenes set in modern-day London had, thankfully, already been shot.)

Of course, Ledger isn't the first actor to pass away before his passion project hit theaters, nor is this the first time a studio has had to scramble to make final cuts and adapt final filming in the absence of a star. Read on for a list of actors whose untimely deaths cast a pall over opening weekend, caused a surge of macabre publicity, and, in some cases, forced the critics to bite their tongues.