Stoney Mason
Banned
NEW YORK - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, naked in bed with sleeping pills nearby, police said. The Australian-born actor was 28.
There was no obvious indication of suicide, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
Ledgers publicist, Mara Buxbaum, issued a statement this afternoon, saying, We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident. This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the familys privacy.
It wasnt immediately clear if Ledger had committed suicide. He had an appointment for a massage at the residence in the tony neighborhood of SoHo, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived and found him unconscious at 3:26 p.m.
According to The New York Times, his body was moved to the floor, and after receiving no response from the actor after shaking him, the masseuse and housekeeper called authorities.
We are investigating the possibility of an overdose, Browne said. There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.
A source told msnbc.com's Courtney Hazlett that Ledger had been turning down roles lately.
The Times initially reported that Ledger was found in an apartment owned by actress Mary-Kate Olsen, but a spokesperson for the actress, who is at the Sundance Film Festival, later told the Times the apartment was not Olsen's.
A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers began gathering Tuesday evening outside the building on the upscale block, where several police officers guarded the door. According to The Times, city workers rolled Ledgers body, encased in a black body bag, out of the building on a stretcher.
An autopsy was planned for Wednesday, medical examiners office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove 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 film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.
It was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywoods bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knights Tale, his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001s Monsters Ball.
I had such great hope for him, said Mel Gibson, who played Ledgers vengeful father in The Patriot, in a statement from the actors 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 boroughs most famous residents. Brokeback would be his breakthrough role, establishing him as one of his generations finest talents and an actor willing to take risks.
Ledger began to gravitate more toward independent fare, including Lasse Hallstroms Casanova and Terry Gilliams The Brothers Grimm, both released in 2005. 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 Ledgers most recent choices were arguably the boldest yet: He co-starred in Im 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.
And in what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldnt be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholsons Joker. Ledgers version of the Batman villain, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be less comical and more depraved and dark.
Curiosity to see Ledgers final performance will likely further stoke interest in the summer blockbuster. Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledgers performance as the Joker would be wildly different than Jack Nicholsons memorable turn in 1989s Batman.
It was a very great challenge for Heath, Nolan said. Hes 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 told The New York Times in a November interview 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 told the newspaper. I couldnt 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.
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 costarred opposite Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You. Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didnt like.
It wasnt 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, Youre crazy, my parents were like, Come on, you have to eat.
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