Heath Ledger found dead

Mike January 22nd, 2008 Features, Movies

I don’t think I even realized how big time an actor or how much I liked Heath Ledger was until I heard the news he was found dead just a few minutes ago.

According to CNN.com, the 28 year old Ledger was found dead in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the result of an apparent drug overdose. A housekeeper went to wake him up for an appointment, but he wasn’t conscious and was pronounced at 3:30pm EST.

This news is so sad and horrible. It’s rare that such a high profile actor dies that it kind of takes your breath away. Ledger earned an Oscar nomination just a few years ago for Brokeback Mountain, and is set to play The Joker in the upcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight.

That film was in post-production, but according to IMDB, he was in the middle of filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Without an idea of what the plot is for that film and the Joker character, it’s pretty awful to think that this will be it for him and there will be no more movies for Ledger.

I first saw him in The Patriot, but really had an enjoyable time in his jousting flick A Knight’s Tale.

Update 6:45pm:

Leave it to me to believe the NY Times, but according to CNN and other reports, it wasn’t Mary-Kate Olsen’s apartment, and the death hasn’t been ruled a suicide, it may very well be an overdose. Police spokesman Paul Browne had this to say:

“This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet.”

Browne later told reporters some prescription medications were found in the room, including sleeping pills.

But he stressed police have made no determination of the cause of Ledger’s death — that would be done by the medical examiner.

He said the pills were not “scattered about.”

I’ll be updating this story as more developments roll in…in the meantime, Ledger is survived by his daughter Matilda, whom he had with his former fiancee Michelle Williams.