Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan
apartment, and police said drugs may have been a factor. The
Australian-born actor was 28. Police said Ledger was naked in his
bed with an unknown number of sleeping pills near the body.
Actor Heath Ledger
nominated for best actor for "Brokeback Mountain" arrives at the
78th annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood,
California in this March 5, 2006 file photo. Ledger was found dead
in his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday, possibly of a drug overdose,
New York City police said. (File photo: REUTERS)
Ledger had an appointment for a massage at a residence in the
tony SoHo neighborhood, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A
housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had
arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.
A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers began gathering Tuesday
evening outside the building on an upscale block, where several
police officers guarded the door. The medical examiner's office
planned an autopsy on Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove
said.
While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected,
award-winning actor who took his craft seriously 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 film. The two
had a daughter, Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they
split up last year.
Ledger most recently appeared in "I'm Not There," in which he
played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan — as did Cate
Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar
nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.
Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker this year in
"The Dark Knight," a sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins."
He's had starring roles in "A Knight's Tale" and "The Patriot,"
and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in "Monster's
Ball." He also played a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian film
"Candy."
Heath Ledger (L) and
director of "Brokeback Mountain" Ang Lee
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."
His movie career caught on soon after that, culminating with his
Academy Award nomination for "Brokeback Mountain."
"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 had 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."
Actor Heath Ledger is shown
in an undated publicity photo as The Joker?in
upcoming?The Dark?Knight (File photo: Warner
Bros. Pictures).
The body of actor Heath
Ledger is removed from a Soho apartment by the NYC Medical Examiner
team Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, in New York. Ledger, 28, an
Australian-born actor, was found dead in the Manhattan residence on
Tuesday. He had an appointment for a massage NYPD spokesman Paul
Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage
therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m. (Photo:
AP)
The body of actor Heath
Ledger is removed from a Soho apartment by the NYC Medical Examiner
team Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, in New York.? (Photo:
AP)
New York City Medical
Examiners carry the body of actor Heath Ledger from his apartment
in New York January 22, 2008. (Photo: AP)
Police stand in front of
the Soho residence where the body of Heath Ledger was found,
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, in New York. (Photo: AP)
(China Daily/Agencies January 23, 2008)
