Heath Ledger.. found dead.

[Solo]

I just saw it on Sky news, can anyone else confirm this? :confused: :(

[Caris]

Who is he?

R.I.P

[arnold]

http://edition.cnn.com/

CNN has it reported, I jsut posted in the Movie news thread abotu it too

He took the role of the Joker in the new batman film

[Stefkov]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1301898,00.html

Shit.

[Solo]

Holy fuck celebrities are dropping like flies.

[Platty]

Could only find this:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1301898,00.html

Oh man. :(

[AshMat]

Jesus that's mad.

[Solo]

The batman curse is fucking true!

I can't believe this he's like in his prime.

[DCK]

WTF, he was at the height of his career :nono:

He's the Joker in next year's Batman movie..

[Ramar]

Fucking hell.

RIP...

Thought he was awesome in A Knight's Tale.

[Daft]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

He was AWESOME!! :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[Stefkov]

WTF, he was at the height of his career :nono:

He's the Joker in next year's Batman movie..
Oh yeah. Bloody hell.
Anyway I just saw this on BBC news 24 in my mums room.

[Platty]

"Hollywood actor Heath Ledger has been found dead in his New York apartment, according to police, who say it was possibly drugs related.
A police spokesman said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the apartment that is believed to be his home.

The housekeeper went to tell Ledger the masseuse had arrived and found him dead.

The 28-year-old Australian-born actor received an Oscar nomination for the hit film Brokeback Mountain.

Sky's entertainment correspondent Matt Smith said: "We don't know what has happened here yet - whether it was accidental or not.

"He was not someone who troubled the headlines - he and his partner kept out of the limelight."

[Slaggis]

What? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!:(

Some of the movies he did were fantastic, and the new Batman he was filming!

Thats so fucking sad, jesus. RIP.

[Dyson]

He played a gay guy, nevermind. (OH GOD I AM ONLY JOKING PLEASE DON'T KILL ME)

R.I.P

[Oxigen_Waste]

Holy shit... he was fantastic... this is awfull.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Wtf! I can't fucking believe this.

Just told my flatmate this and she didn't believe me until we both saw it. I thought this thread was going to be a joke or something. :(

[or else you will DIE]

Totally crazy.

[Daft]

http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/22/heath-ledger-is-dead/

[Babooo]

can't believe it....

[Roostophe]

Ah, fucking hell. That's absolutely awful.

R.I.P. :(

[Platty]

Sky news are reporting on that TMZ website which they say they believe it was not a crime and prescription pills were found near his body.

[Jonnas]

Holy...

I certainly didn't expect this. He was like, 28 years old, right?

R.I.P.

[Dan Dare]

aw man that's insane. What a tragic waste of wonderful talent.

[Chuck]

SHIT I feel sooo bad. Whats with all these deaths.... Shit

[Dyson]

Urgh an overdose then..

[Coolness Bears]

I would have never expected this, awful news! Terribly sad. :(

[EEVILMURRAY]

Another news article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080122/ap_en_ce/obit_ledger

[Owen]

My god! This is awful! He was a splendid actor, espicially in Brokeback with Jake Gyllenhaal.

R.I.P Heath :(

[Solo]

There's a brilliant film he was in called Candy. That's gonna be a lot harder to watch now :(

[Cube]

R.I.P. to the Joker and one of the guys who was with Alan Tudyk in A Knights Tale.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I know it sounds daft, because I didn't personally know the guy or anything, but this still hasn't sunk in. It's almost hard to believe how he won't be around anymore, and that's going to be even harder to imagine not seeing him in another film after The Dark Knight comes out.

[kyletherobot]

scary stuff.
my reaction is same as other peoples, it just doesn't seem real.
R.I.P heath.

[Slaggis]

I know it sounds daft, because I didn't personally know the guy or anything, but this still hasn't sunk in. It's almost hard to believe how he won't be around anymore, and that's going to be even harder to imagine not seeing him in another film after The Dark Knight comes out.

Agreed. It's going to be wierd seeing The Dark Night with him in it (had he finished filming?). He was fantastic in Brokeback, and really deserved the oscar, it's a shame he'll never get one.

[McMad]

This is awful, it's going to be very unsettling to watch one of his films again.

[Owen]

I'm actually really upset....i hate drugs, i really do.

Such a talent wasted.

[Shino]

I really liked some of his movies, but can't say I'm that sad about it, specially if he did it to him self.

[Chuck]

Agreed. It's going to be wierd seeing The Dark Night with him in it (had he finished filming?). He was fantastic in Brokeback, and really deserved the oscar, it's a shame he'll never get one.

Its in post production. He was filming 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus'

[Slaggis]

Its in post production. He was filming 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus'

Ah right ok, I thought he had. He was filming that only 3 days ago with pictures of him looking pretty happy. I wonder what went wrong?

[The fish]

What a tragic waste of wonderful talent.

That sums up my thoughts nicely. I never watched Brokeback Mountain all the way through, but it was a great film, especially him.

A terrible shame, in all...

According to the Beeb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7203797.stm), it seems intentional: "We are investigating the possibility of an overdose," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "There were pills within the vicinity of the bed."

[triforce_keeper]

Wow just heard about this, what a bloody shame :(

R.I.P ledger

[Cube]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/movies/moviesspecial/04lyal.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

An interview with him not so long ago. Here's an interesting part:

He tends to do that. He is here in London filming the latest episode of the “Batman” franchise, “The Dark Knight.” (Mr. Bale, as it happens, plays Batman; Mr. Ledger plays the Joker.) It is a physically and mentally draining role — his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” he said cheerfully — and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

Even as he spoke, Mr. Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette. He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat, put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette. Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption. “It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself,” is how he put it, a little apologetically.

Perhaps that's where his problems started?

[david.dakota]

Only the good die young. RIP

[Jimbob]

Now this is disastrous, was really looking forward to seeing him in the new Batman movie. He was pretty good in Knights Tale.

So young as well, but you never know when the time is up. RIP

[ShadowV7]

Woah never heard of the guy, but from your comments he sounded like a good guy.

[Slaggis]

TMZ.com, the website that broke the news - has now said "Cops tell TMZ Heath Ledger's death was accidental." and that he "had a substance abuse problem. A Ledger confidante tells us he had been clean for a year."

Bollocks, He was such an awesome actor.

[The fish]

Only the good die young. RIP

Nelson Mandela? Marcus Aurelius?

[Mokong X-C]

Oh man, this is shocking, i really liked his films and he was just getting better and better, Knights Tale was one of my fav films for a feel good film that the g/f liked for the love story aspect.


What will become of the new Batman film now? Had he finished filming?

[Nintendohnut]

This is such a shock, I barely believed it when I saw the thread. Such a terrible waste. I honestly hope it was an accidental overdose, purely because he came across as such a great guy it would be horrible to think he was hiding any problems.

Such a waste of great talent. RIP.

[Haver]

He played some incredible roles.

[Portlett]

Just found out about this, pretty shitty.

[Nintendinosaur]

SIR ULRICH VON LICHTENSTEIN!!!!

[My Buttons are Magic!]

think of his daughter now growing up without a dad... thats gonna be hard to take :(

[Slaggis]

The last picture of him alive is making it's way round the tinternet. It was taken on the set of the new movie he was filming in London 2 days ago.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tmz.com/media/2008/01/0122_heath_ledger_inf.jpg

The cause of death will be determined tomorrow apparently, but I don't see how taking a bunch of sleeping pills (The news has been saying he was found with sleeping pills around him) can be accidental. Sounds like he must have been pretty messed up.

[Chris the great]

unexpected. real shame, found out in the pub, couldnt belive it, but had a quiz too distract me. this is going to throw batman 3 into shit

[welsh_gamer]

Shocking stuff. Never really seen a film with him in it, but I was looking forward to seeing his take on the Joker.

R.I.P

[mario_jr]

just heard about it on the radio driving home. I was shocked.... damn shame.

[Solo]

unexpected. real shame, found out in the pub, couldnt belive it, but had a quiz too distract me. this is going to throw batman 3 into shit

The release date will doubtfully change. Harvey Dent/Two-Face is the focus point of The Dark Knight's plot (joker is more like the scarecrow than Ra's al Ghul, if you want some sort of Batman Begins comparison) so I doubt the joker will be in the third.

It's taking a while for this to sink in I don't know why :( it's so sad. Everyone who hasn't really needs to see Brokeback Mountain and Candy.

[Wesley]

I'm pretty gutted about it. 10 Things I Hate About You is such an amazing film and he was such a good actor in it. :(

[Monopolyman]

'Holy shit!' seems to be the right phrase to use now. What does this mean to releas of The Dark Knight?

R.I.P

[Hellfire]

wtf that sucks hard...

[McPhee]

WOW! Thats just saddened me :(

I didn't take this topic seriously when i saw it, was half expecting Rick Roll

[bluey]

batman is in post-production, so they could still release it... it;d just be a posthumous role...
posthumous is a weird word...i always read it "post-hummus".. which REALLY puts me off hummus. :blank:

[Slaggis]

News has been reported that:

Heath Did Not Kill Himself

TMZ has been contacted by a rep from Heath's family. The cops told the family Heath's death was accidental and there is no evidence to support the buzz he may have committed suicide.

They are particularly distraught over media reports that he may have taken his own life. The family says he was not that kind of person.

As we just reported, Heath was ill with pneumonia when he died.

Edit:

It's looking increasingly likely that he may not have killed himself afterall

Here's the way it went down. A cleaning lady for Heath arrived at the apartment first, followed soon thereafter by a masseuse. They both entered the room at around the same time and discovered Heath's lifeless body.

The cleaning lady called police. The masseuse, we're told, called the bodyguard for the Olsens. She called him because they're friends and he's an EMT. The bodyguard was around the block at Ashley's and he immediately went over. By the time he arrived, the cops were already there.

We're also told it appeared Heath "had been dead for a while" and there were no visible signs of trauma. There was a pill bottle on the nightstand.

[EchoDesiato]

Man what. It's going to be weird watching the new Batman movie.

[Hero-of-Time]

R.I.P Heath.

I never seen Brokeback but I thought he played a great role in The Patriot as Mel Gibsons kid.

I was on nightshift last night and my mate came back off break saying he had got a text about this news. I thought he was having a laugh but another mate got a text off a different guy when he was on his break so we rang him up to see what had happened.

Hopefully The Dark Knight will have a " In Memory..." message at the start of the film.

[Oxigen_Waste]

The release date will doubtfully change. Harvey Dent/Two-Face is the focus point of The Dark Knight's plot (joker is more like the scarecrow than Ra's al Ghul, if you want some sort of Batman Begins comparison) so I doubt the joker will be in the third.

It's taking a while for this to sink in I don't know why :( it's so sad. Everyone who hasn't really needs to see Brokeback Mountain and Candy.

I have a feeling that it's the other way around... Harvey Dent is barely a ditraction, the Joker is the main point.

And why are people already talking about a third?

[ReZourceman]

:( :( :( :(

Stunned.

RIP.

[Mundi]

I have a feeling that it's the other way around... Harvey Dent is barely a ditraction, the Joker is the main point.

And why are people already talking about a third?

If the cow still has milk it´s gonna be milked. Unless Dark Knight flops i wouldn´t be shocked over a sequel

Also i had no idea Harvey Dent is in the movie.
Which is probably because i avoid reading about movies i´m excited about

[ReZourceman]

If the cow still has milk it´s gonna be milked. Unless Dark Knight flops i wouldn´t be shocked over a sequel

Normally this would be true, but because Nolan is so passionate and involved with the movie, and they are his, it all lies in his hands.

[rokhed00]

If the cow still has milk it´s gonna be milked. Unless Dark Knight flops i wouldn´t be shocked over a sequel

It's not going to flop, you can't buy this kind of publicity.

[Mundi]

Normally this would be true, but because Nolan is so passionate and involved with the movie, and they are his, it all lies in his hands.

It´s pretty much up to the people who have the rights to make the movie.

It's not going to flop, you can't buy this kind of publicity.

The first thing i thought when i heard about this.

[Chris the great]

regarding batman 2/3, it is going to stir things up because;
joker is to be caught and arrested in 2, the 3rd deals with 2face and jokers trial. read that on empier a while ago, they dont usualy get it wrong.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Hopefully The Dark Knight will have a " In Memory..." message at the start of the film.
I daresay it'll be at the end. Like what they did with John Ritter in Bad Santa.

[Dan Dare]

I have a feeling that it's the other way around... Harvey Dent is barely a ditraction, the Joker is the main point.

And why are people already talking about a third?

that's true.

a third is being allowed for with this one- harvey dent being the link, not the joker.


shit. the more i think about this, i feel worse. i hate seeing the talented go so young. he was on the brink of being a magnificent performer.

[ReZourceman]

Yeah. He had absolutely tonnes of potential. Gah! :(

[Solo]

I have a feeling that it's the other way around... Harvey Dent is barely a ditraction, the Joker is the main point.

And why are people already talking about a third?


Chris Nolan spoke to The Los Angeles Times very recently and he gave one quote that will probably give quite a few Batman fans pause. Of The Dark Knight, he said:

"Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film. The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film -- he's got no story arc, he's just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it's really extraordinary."

So, that would seem to mean that The Joker is not strictly speaking the main villain of The Dark Knight. But let's think about this for a second before we throw up our arms in fury that we've been deceived. As anyone who's seen the IMAX prologue will know, when we first meet The Joker in the movie he has already become the clown prince of crime. So this won't be an origin story for him (unless we get a few Killing Joke style flashbacks).

That means we take Nolan's quote to mean that we'll see Harvey Dent go from upstanding citizen to tragic villain, while The Joker just runs amok through Gotham causing mayhem and bloodshed and helping push other characters' stories along. That would make the marketing of this movie even cleverer, since we've seen next to nothing of Two-Face, meaning we've seen very little of the plot.


That's why I thought that.

[Tellyn]

Jesus, I was shocked when I heard it this morning. RIP. :(

[Daft]

The "Reverend" Fred Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to protest at the funeral of Heath Ledger.

Why?

The "God Hates Fags" hatemongers will picket the decease Aussie actor's funeral because he is a pervert who promoted homosexuality by appearing as a gay man in Brokeback Mountain.

We wish we could laugh at this stupidity, but it just makes us angry!

Heath may not have been perfect, but he doesn't deserve this.

I hate these people so much it hurts.

[Roostophe]

The "Reverend" Fred Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to protest at the funeral of Heath Ledger.

Why?

The "God Hates Fags" hatemongers will picket the decease Aussie actor's funeral because he is a pervert who promoted homosexuality by appearing as a gay man in Brokeback Mountain.

We wish we could laugh at this stupidity, but it just makes us angry!

Heath may not have been perfect, but he doesn't deserve this.

Bastards, the lot of them... :nono:

[Slaggis]

I know, it's fucking ridiculous. Didn't their parents teach them to have a little respect? Damn, I wish he'd have won that oscar, that really would have pissed them off. Hopefully the oscars will honour him in some way, if not this year, then next.

It sounds like he was one troubled guy, and the Batman movie apparently wasn't helping him in the slightest (In an interview he expressed his difficulty sleeping due to playing such a pyschotic, non-empathetic character).

[Wesley]

You guys should check out Louis Theroux's documentary on the fag haters.

[Daft]

You guys should check out Louis Theroux's documentary on the fag haters.

Yeah I saw that, it was really good. Also there was another one (exactly the same family) a couple months later, I think on Channel 4, with Keith Allen presenting which I though was a bit better because Keith actually challenges the family and digs up dirt on them and basically threatens them.

[Dante]

RIP :(

Stupid fag haters and people moaning about whats going to happen to the batman movies.

[flameboy]

I cannot believe fag haters doing this...hopefully they can keep the location and time a closely kept secret.

As for Heath Ledger, its a real shame, I'm by no means a great fan of any of his work but I really am looking forward to Dark Knight. Can people win Oscars posthumously?

[Slaggis]

I would have thought so, yeah, though I'm not sure. Hopefully.

Apparently, no-one will know the actual cause of death (i.e what drug it was, whether it was intentional or not) for about 10-14 days when the results from the toxiology test comes back because the autopsy was "inconclusive". (According to Amercian Tv).

[Shorty]

This is awful :( He never got to see the reaction to his new role.

[uəʌəsʎɐɾ]

that's true.

a third is being allowed for with this one- harvey dent being the link, not the joker.


shit. the more i think about this, i feel worse. i hate seeing the talented go so young. he was on the brink of being a magnificent performer.

Precisely what I thought -- he'd barely started.

I don't believe any of the rubbish about him intentionally doing something like this. It's a tragic accident, is all it is.

Utterly unbelievable, the whole thing :/

[Daft]

Some places are saying he had pneumonia.

[Slaggis]

Some places are saying he had pneumonia.

Yeah, I qouted that earlier in the thread somewhere. Apparently, that, mixed with the pills he was taking may have been what caused his death.

It really is sad, I mean, there are lots of articles taalking about how the best was yet to come for him etc. I mean, he was only 28 and he had done some fantastic movies. It's sort of like River Phoenix take 2.

[Konfucius]

Oh man, I'm really surprised I'm moved so much by his death.
He had a great career ahead of him and although I only saw him in one movie so far but he really impressed me as the joker.

[Slaggis]

Just to update: The death was offically an accident, with no intent involved.


HEATH Ledger's grieving family has issued a warning against mixing prescription drugs after US authorities found the actor died of an accidental overdose.

Medical authorities say the 28-year-old Australian film star died from an accidental overdose of six different drugs, prompting doctors to warn of the dangers of combining prescription drugs.

The Perth-born actor's father, Kim Ledger, added his voice to the warnings.

"While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy," he said in a statement.

"Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."

Ledger died in his New York apartment "of acute intoxication" from the combination of two strong painkillers, two anti-anxiety medicines and two sleeping aids, according to the medical examiner's office.

Among the drugs found in his body were oxycodone, a painkiller sold as OxyContin and used in other pain relievers such as Percodan and Percocet.

Others included drugs sold as anti-anxiety pills Valium and Xanax, which are sedatives.

The medical examiner and police would not identify the medications Ledger had in his apartment when his body was discovered on January 22, nor would they discuss who had prescribed them.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating how Ledger obtained the medications and whether they were prescribed illegally.

It is common for investigators to review prescriptions when so many drugs are involved in an overdose death, said spokesman Rusty Payne.

Doctors not connected with the case said it would be unlikely for one doctor to prescribe all the drugs.

However, they said it is not unusual for people to be prescribed both painkillers and sedatives, and overdoses are not uncommon.

"This is not rock star wretched excess," said Cindy Kuhn, a pharmacology professor at Duke University.

"This is a situation that could happen to plenty of people with prescriptions for these kind of drugs."

Kuhn said some of the drugs are long-lasting and Ledger could have taken them over a period of several days.

The medical examiner's office wouldn't say what concentrations of each drug were found in Ledger's blood.

"What you're looking at here is the cumulative effects of these medications together," said the spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove.

Police had said they found six bottles of anti-anxiety medicines, sleeping pills and other medicine in his Manhattan apartment after the Oscar-nominated actor was discovered dead in his bed last month.

"This was not a deliberate attempt to kill himself. This was an accident," said Lawrence Kobilinsky, head of forensic science at John Jay College in New York.

He had no role in the investigation.

"He just took too many drugs having similar effects on the central nervous system."

Experts said the combination of sedatives and the other medicines likely combined to suppress his brain function and his breathing.

They said that Ledger probably had been prescribed the medicine by a number of different doctors, because several of them were from the same class of drugs and used to treat similar symptoms.

"It doesn't make sense" that one doctor would prescribe all those, said Dr William Lee, an internal medicine specialist at the University of Texas-Southwestern in Dallas.

"It's more likely that he got them from different prescribers."