Ledger's Globe expected to go to daughter Matilda

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The emotional parents of the late Heath Ledger welcomed his best supporting actor Golden Globe with bittersweet pride, and the actor's mother said the award was likely to be given to his daughter Matilda.

Ledger's father, Kim, told Australian media that he felt "elated, fantastic" as he watched Monday's awards ceremony from his home in Perth, Australia.

"Absolutely fantastic, bittersweet but feeling great," Kim Ledger said.

"A standing ovation breaks you up," he said, referring to the ovation Ledger's win received from the star-studded audience. "That really goes to the heart, you know."

In an interview with People magazine, Ledger's mother, Sally Bell, also said the family was "bursting with pride" over the critical recognition of her son's performance as the Joker in Batman thriller "The Dark Knight."

"I should imagine that eventually it will be going to Matilda," Bell said of the award. "At this stage she is only so young, but down the track she will have all these things. It will belong to her because she is part of him."

"The Dark Knight" was released several months after Ledger's death in January 2008 of an accidental prescription drugs overdose.

The movie has garnered Ledger, 28, not only the Golden Globe but also won a Critics Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild nomination, and he is widely expected to receive an Oscar nomination next week.

The Golden Globe was accepted in Beverly Hills on Sunday by "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan.