Ledger 'best actor of his generation'

Terry Gilliam has hailed the late Heath Ledger as the best actor of his generation.

The filmmaker, who worked with Ledger on The Brothers Grimm and the forthcoming Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus, told the New York Post that the loss of Ledger still "rankles" with him.

"In terms of his acting, it still rankles with me that he's dead because he would have been streets ahead of anyone else in his generation," Gilliam said. "He just kept getting better and better. He was fearless.

"On Parnassus, he was improvising all the time, and it was better than what we had written. In a sense, I felt Heath was writing this film."

Ledger died from an overdose of prescription pills in January last year. The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus is scheduled for release on June 6.