Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Guys, this story just breaks my heart. I've been a fan of Heath since he stared in "10 things I hate about you" and loved him in "Brokeback Mountain". He was going to star in the upcoming "The Dark Knight" as the Joker for this Batman movie. It's just sad that he had to die at such a young age. Another sad thing is his family had to find out through the news themselves. Breaks my heart. My prayers are with them.
Click this link for updates from WNBC

Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead In NYC
POSTED: 4:43 pm EST January 22, 2008
UPDATED: 11:46 pm EST January 22, 2008
NEW YORK -- Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in what might be a drug-related death, police said. Ledger was found by his housekeeper, who was trying to let him know that a masseuse had arrived for an appointment, police said. The housekeeper found him dead, face down and naked at 3:26 p.m.
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Police sources said investigators found two bottles of sleeping and anti-anxiety pills at the apartment -- one prescription, one over the counter. Fire officials told NewsChannel 4 that a 911 caller reported that a man was not breathing and his body was "cold". The maid reported earlier she had heard Ledger snoring, police told WNBC.com. Police sources said no suicide note had been recovered.
The apartment, which Ledger had rented for the last three or four months, was neat, a law enforcement told WNBC. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office said it will be conducting the autopsy and the results won't be known until Wednesday. NYPD spokesman Browne said there was no obvious indication of suicide.
A gaggle of paparazzi and gawkers began gathering outside the building, where police put up barricades to control a crowd of about 300 people. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black body bag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a white medical examiner's office van. As the building door opened, the bystanders snapped pictures with their camera phones and rolled their video. "He's coming out!" some said.
While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected, award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on his heartthrob looks. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," where he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the 2005 film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together until they split up last year.
The death was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywood's bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale," his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001's "Monster's Ball."
"I had such great hope for him," said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's vengeful father in "The Patriot," in a statement from the actor's publicist. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."
Ledger eschewed Hollywood glitz in favor of a bohemian life in Brooklyn, where he was one of the borough's most famous residents before moving to Manhattan. "Brokeback" would be his breakthrough role, establishing him as one of his generation's finest talents and an actor willing to take risks.
In the Australian city of Perth, where the actor was born and raised, his father called the actor's death "tragic, untimely and accidental." "He was down to earth, generous, kind hearted, life loving unselfish individual extremely inspirational to many," Kim Ledger said, reading from a prepared statement. "Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life." The actor's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement Tuesday night: "We are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known."
Ledger began to gravitate more toward independent fare. His 2006 film "Candy" now seems destined to have an especially haunting quality: In a particularly realistic performance, Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend, played by Abbie Cornish. But Ledger's most recent choices were arguably the boldest yet: He costarred in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan -- as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.
Ledger told The New York Times in November that he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger said. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour, the paper said.
In what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldn't be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker, playing the comic-book villain in a sequel to "Batman Begins." Ledger's version of the villain in "Dark Knight, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be less comical and more depraved and dark. "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledger's performance as the Joker would be wildly different than Jack Nicholson's memorable turn in 1989's "Batman." "It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."
Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his Manhattan neighborhood, where he used to shop at a home and children's store. Michelle Vella said she had frequently seen Ledger with his daughter -- carrying the 2-year-old on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her. "It's so sad. They were really close," said Vella. "He's a very down-to-earth guy and an amazing father." She said Ledger once bought a bookcase at the home store, and purchased stuffed animals and dresses for his daughter at the children's store. Other locals said Ledger frequented many restaurants in the neighborhood and noticed no signs of trouble with the actor. "It's a shock; he's so young," said Taren Dolbashian, who works on the block and also had seen Ledger with his daughter on his shoulders. "He always seems so happy."
Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004. Ledger was born in 1979 in Perth, in western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."
After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and co-starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a teen comedy reworking of "The Taming of the Shrew." Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like. "It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told The Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat."'