Those estimates should be treated carefully because Ledger's finances included assets, trusts, insurance questions and income connected with his film work.
What mattered more than the headline figure was the family's stated decision.
The beneficiaries named in Ledger's old will would not stand between his daughter and his legacy.
The estate would go to Matilda.
It transformed what could easily have become a story about an outdated legal document into something very different.
The Movie Heath Never Finished
Meanwhile, another problem had emerged.
When Ledger died, he had been working on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam.
The fantasy film centered on Doctor Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, and a mysterious character named Tony, played by Ledger.
Production had already begun.
Ledger had completed part of his performance, but important scenes remained unfilmed.
His death placed the entire project in jeopardy.
Replacing an actor halfway through a conventional movie is extraordinarily difficult.
Replacing the central actor in a visually ambitious Terry Gilliam fantasy seemed nearly impossible.
One option was simply to abandon the film.
Another was to reshoot everything Ledger had already filmed with another actor.
But doing that would erase Heath's final performance.
Gilliam searched for another solution.
And the fantastical nature of the story gave him one.
Three Actors Step Forward
Within the world of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, characters could pass through a magical mirror into a world shaped by imagination.
Gilliam realized that this device could explain why Tony's appearance changed.
Instead of asking one actor to replace Ledger, the director could allow several actors to portray different versions of Tony after the character entered the Imaginarium.
Three major stars agreed to participate.
Johnny Depp.
Jude Law.
Colin Farrell.
Each would portray a transformation of Ledger's character.
It was an unusually elegant solution to an almost impossible filmmaking problem.
Rather than pretending Ledger had never been part of the movie, the film could preserve the work he had already completed.
His performance would remain on screen.
Depp, Law and Farrell would not erase him.
They would help finish what he had started.
Gilliam later described the extraordinary process of rebuilding the movie after Ledger's death, and the final version was released in 2009.
The credits themselves acknowledged the circumstances, presenting the transformations as part of Tony's journey through the Imaginarium.
But the actors' participation reportedly carried another meaning.
It was connected to Matilda.
Their Pay Went to Heath's Daughter
In August 2008, reports emerged that Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell had decided that the money they received for completing Ledger's role would benefit Matilda.
Spanish newspaper El País, among outlets reporting the story at the time, said all three actors intended to give the compensation they received for their work to Ledger's young daughter.
The gesture quickly became one of the most widely repeated stories surrounding the production.
There is reason to phrase the precise financial arrangement carefully: detailed contracts and payment records were not publicly released, and later retellings sometimes turn the story into the sweeping claim that every dollar each actor earned was formally placed into a specific trust.
The strongest contemporary reporting supports the essential point — the actors chose to direct their compensation from the project toward Matilda.
That fact was powerful enough without embellishment.
They had already agreed to enter an emotionally difficult production.
They were taking over the unfinished role of a colleague who had died unexpectedly.
And rather than treating the work as another lucrative Hollywood assignment, reports said they chose to make the money part of Ledger's daughter's future.
Johnny Depp's Tribute
Johnny Depp later spoke movingly about joining the film.
He had worked with Gilliam before and understood the director's imaginative world.
But this project was different.
Depp wasn't simply joining another movie.
He was walking into a space left behind by someone who could no longer complete the work himself.
The same was true for Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
Each actor had to create his own version of Tony while remaining connected to Ledger's original performance.
The result was unusual in film history.
Four actors effectively played manifestations of the same character, not because the movie had originally been designed that way, but because real tragedy had forced art to adapt.
The structure became a kind of cinematic memorial.
Ledger appears in the portions of the movie he actually completed.
Then, when Tony enters the Imaginarium, his face changes.
First Depp.
Then Law.
Then Farrell.
The transformations no longer feel merely like fantasy.
Knowing what happened during production gives them an emotional weight that no screenplay could have planned.
A Career That Continued After Death
Ledger's professional legacy was also expanding even after his death.
When The Dark Knight arrived in theaters in July 2008, audiences finally saw the performance that had generated enormous anticipation.
Ledger's Joker became a cultural phenomenon.
Critics praised the transformation.
Audiences packed theaters.
His performance dominated discussion of the movie.
Then came awards season.
In January 2009, almost exactly one year after Ledger's death, he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
The following month, the Academy Awards delivered one of the most emotional moments in Oscar history.
Heath Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight.
His family — his father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger — accepted the Oscar on his behalf.
Their speeches returned the moment to the person who could not be there.
And inevitably, they returned to Matilda.
His mother said they were accepting the award on behalf of Heath's “beautiful Matilda.”
His sister spoke about how proud they were of him.
His father thanked the Academy for recognizing his son's work.
The award was eventually destined for Matilda, another physical reminder of the father she had lost before she was old enough to fully understand who he was.
Protecting a Child From a Public Tragedy
Michelle Williams faced a different challenge.
While the world wanted to talk endlessly about Heath Ledger — his death, his performances, his medications, his Joker, his estate — she had to raise their daughter.
Matilda was not a Hollywood storyline.
She was a child.