PeterDavid.net

A real damn shame.

Between this and Owen Wilson it really brings home how little we really know about so many of the people who seemingly live their lives in a fishbowl.

Early reports are predictably unreliable--some "friends" (and I think anyone who is talking to the press while the body is still warm hardly qualify for the description) say they saw it coming, that he was depressed. Other reports say he was suffering from pneumonia, making an accidental overdose more likely. Whatever the cause, we lost a fine actor who had many great roles ahead of him and his child has lost a father who, by all reports, was devoted to her. Just awful.

Whatever the cause may be, it was too soon for ANYONE that age. Coming up on 36, I see that 28 is the beginning of the rest of your life, not the end.

I was at work when MSNBC started airing this story. I looked up just as they started talking about it. A minute and a half in, they reported that it MIGHT NOT BE TRUE. That made me furious. They'll go through all the trouble to come up with file photos, create a slate, start reporting it and THEN someone thinks maybe they should check if it's true? Unfortunately, it turned out to be. I enjoyed anything I saw him in.

He's a talent that will be missed, for certain.

Anyone remember Roar? It wasn't exactly a great show, but even then, he was good in it.

And at 26, I'm now feeling amazingly mortal for my age.

He will be missed. And some of the reactions I've heard have been kinda scary--like the people saying they should go back and re-shoot his scenes from The Dark Knight with someone else in them so the sequel can mantain actor continuity.

On the plus side, though, everything I'm hearing (through that oh-so-credible source people call the Internet) is that this wasn't a suicide or a drug abuse OD for once--that he had pneumonia, and a prescription for Ambien because he'd been unable to sleep lately, and the combination of the two just made his heart give out.

God, it's sad that "tragic accident" is a pleasant step up from our first expectations these days...

I heard about Heath Ledger this afternoon and I've been unable to do anything else, but keep clicking the tv channels for news.

What a horrible thing to happen. My heart goes out to his family and his friends.

I also heard that he was fighting pneumonia and was taking Ambien and that the combination...

Such a terrible tragedy.

like the people saying they should go back and re-shoot his scenes from The Dark Knight with someone else

Worse still are those that, upon the immediate news of his passing and the initial reports (supposedly from police) that this was an apparent suicide by OTC sleeping pills, were making comments along the lines of "Another celebrity drug addict... why should we care?".

I was born around the same time he was, we're the same age. Brings up a lot of things right now, and I ...

don't know what to say.

All I can say is I hope the best for his friends and family.

Given the sleeping pills found on the night stand nearby, I'd imagine that we will find out eventually what happened.

It never occurred to me that whether it turns out to be a suicide or not will really change the level of trauma (though, not having lived through such a thing, I supposed I'm speculating from ignorance), but the thing I keep thinking about is that his two-year-old daughter will never personally know her father.

And that's the most tragic aspect of this to me.

Sean said, "I was at work when MSNBC started airing this story. I looked up just as they started talking about it. A minute and a half in, they reported that it MIGHT NOT BE TRUE. That made me furious. They'll go through all the trouble to come up with file photos, create a slate, start reporting it and THEN someone thinks maybe they should check if it's true?"

Reminds me of the late ABC news anchor Frank Reynolds getting angry because he was being given conflicting information about the Reagan assassination attempt in 1981. He pretty much demanded- on air- that somebody get it right.

And he was right to do so.

I only know Heath Ledger by name; I don't think I've seen any of his films (at least I never saw anything listed under his name in IMDb), but 28 is too young to die, no matter what the cause of death.

Rick

Ambien, I took that crap for almost 4 years, It does help you sleep but unfortunately it also makes you do the weirdest stuff. My wife would find me in the kitchen frying eggs at 3 in the morning and I would have no memory of the event.
Im glad I quit using it. Though I would take frying eggs over having it kill me.
I wonder if it was a combo of the Ambien and maybe an antibiotic or some other med he was taking for the pneumonia?
Nonetheless, A great actor taken much to young.
He will be missed.
I hope they leave the Batman movie alone.

I admit I've never seen any his films, but was impressed by the trailer for Dark Knight and have been looking forward to seeing him in action.
Feel horrible for his family. And especially the two year old girl who doesn't have a daddy anymore.

Naturally Westboro Baptist has just announced they plan to picket his funeral over his work on Brokeback.
The sheer level of hatred I feel for these people is just beyond words right now.

I feel sorry for Heath Ledger's family here in Perth, Western Australia - on top of the devastating news of his death, they will no doubt be subjected to an international media circus.

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has issued a public statement, mentioning the loss of "one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life...Heath Ledger's diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor."

What a terrible, senseless waste. At this point, it seems like Ledger's prolific workrate, and how deeply he immersed himself in each role, resulted in sleeping difficulties - and this probably led to a sleeping-pill overdose. The news reports in Australia keep mentioning Ledger's dislike of the trappings of fame (having to deal with the media/being hounded for interviews, photoshoots, etc), and that just makes me respect him all the more. One thing's for sure - there's going to be a pall hanging over "The Dark Knight" now.

I remember the first time I saw Heath Ledger's work, it was on "The Patriot" along Mel Gibson, and right then and there I knew he had the right stuff to be a great actor. But other times I've been wrong.

Not this once: his choice of roles and his performances have only confirmed my early hunch. He was a fine actor, one not to be distracted by Hollywood's scene and really focused on his chosen profession. Then "Brokeback Mountain" did the final trick for me and really established him as a really great performer, on the league of Christian Bale and Edward Norton.

I really look forward to see him one last time on the new Batman. For the little I've seen, seems to me that his Joker is a deadly serious one, closer to the Alan Miller's version in "The killing joke"; instead of the campier and goofier Jack Nicholson's version. Really, really insane; instead of just crazy.

I've never seen any of his work, but from all reports he was both a tremendous actor and a pretty good human being as well. My condolences to his family.

TWL

It's a corny movie, but I can't tell you how many times I've watched Knight's Tale. It's mindless, history-ignoring fun that I don't have to think about, with a notable cast of actors of whom most went on to do much more major roles. I'm thoroughly bummed he's gone.

Ambien and that entire class of hypnotics are troublesome stuff, implicated in all sorts of strange behaviors and messed up brain waves, some of which have become apparent only in the last year or two. How many "black box" warnings are required before a drug is finally labelled dangerous and not worth the risks?

Pat Nolan wrote: I wonder if it was a combo of the Ambien and maybe an antibiotic or some other med he was taking for the pneumonia?

I took Ambien for a short while after surgery a few years back. If I recall correctly, I don't recall that my pharmacist had a problem with antibiotics (Levaquin, in my case) or Sudafed at the same time.

However, they do mention in reports that he said that one Ambien wasn't very effective. So could be that he took more than one, and that in combo with something else did it.

Very Tragic, I really hope that this young mans death is not self inflicted.

A good man, a good father, a very good actor with the potential to be one of the best of our generation. I hope more tragedies like this can be prevented in the future with a little luck and the Grace of God/Jesus/Allah/Vishnu/FSM/Eris/et al.

There's a sick, demented part of me that expects him to sit up in his casket at the funeral, in full Joker regalia, and say "JUST KIDDING!"

I assume this is a delusion on my part and extend condolances to the family.

My first thoughts were pretty uncharitable, I'll admit. It may not make any difference in the pain his family and friends are feeling, but I do hope this was just a tragic drug interaction, rather than suicide or chronic drug abuse. Suicide is likely to make the survivors question their own actions in not preventing it, and drug abuse leads to the "Well, he knew he shouldn't be doing it, and this is what he gets" argument. A purely accidental or unforeseeable accident is painful as hell, but would lead to the least complications and self-doubt for his friends and family.

I understand what PAD is talking about in linking TDK with "The Crow," and he is probably right that many will look at the film as cursed or stained, but the differences are much greater than the similarities. An on-set accident stemming from gross negligence should be a much blacker mark against "The Crow" than this post-filming, probably unrelated tragedy will be against TDK. Whether that distinction will mean anything to the public, I can't guess.

I'm still in shock. RIP

Yet another talented young actor gone too soon.

I agree, I don't think I've ever seen him in a movie that I didn't like, for such a young actor he had a great sense of choosing roles that went against the grain. I'm a great fan of 'A Knight's Tale', and remember 'Roar' as well, but was blown away by 'Brokeback Mountain' a couple of years back.

I heard about it at 3 this morning while sitting up with my 11 month old. He has a daughter with Michelle Williams. Thinking about what that poor child will go through made sitting up seem special. I just wanted to spend time with my son, even if he was screaming like a banshee.

He was a talented actor whose best work was most probably still ahead of him.

Did anyone see the gossip columnist on CNN? She called Owen Wilson's suicide attempt a "dress rehearsal" for this. Basically, she's already decided it was suicide, and why wait for the facts.

RIP

And so "The Dark Knight" will join "The Crow" as a comic book oriented film that's going to have a seriously tragic and creepy aspect added to it: Watching a promising young actor performing his last role as a death obsessed comic book character.

Comic book characters who apply disturbing clown make-up at that.

An utterly irrational part of me wonders: If THE DARK KNIGHT interpretation of the Joker had been given white skin instead of greasepaint, would Heath Ledger have avoided the curse?

But that’s just me trying to make sense from something senseless.

He’ll be missed.

I’m sorry but, I’m just not that broken up about it. If he died from Pneumonia in combination with OTC stuff, that’s just a sad thing and underlines how fragile our own existence is.

On the other hand, juxtaposed against a post about a nineteen year old fighting leukemia makes me think if it was a suicide how incredibly stupid it was.

Also, there’s the matter of if it was a suicide, I kind of wish that there was some kind of cosmic time bank that those unfulfilled years would go into to be distributed to others who are desperately fight for their own lives - see previous post or Steve Gerber’s blog.

That our media swooped down before the body was even removed from the premises speaks a lot to the rubberneck mentality of our society. Yesterday when it was first reported, there were continuous updates during newscast about this event, even though there was no way it was a ‘breaking’ story in the sense of it needing to be updated repeatedly.

Part of that is the event happened in New York City, had Ledger died in some suburb somewhere I hardly doubt the media would have run like a pack to cover the event but, given that it happened in a media center it was only to easy for news organizations to blow this way out of proportion.

Again, if it was a suicide, it’s a horribly selfish act considering he has a daughter who will spend the rest of her life missing a father she never really knew. If it wasn’t a suicide, the reporting at the onset of the event and the coverage of it don’t say too much good about us as a society.

The media would've covered it regardless of where it occurred, because of his profile as an actor.

Yeah, suicide is inherently selfish. But then again, no one ever accused the suicidal of being emotionally healthy enough to consider the feelings of others in the first place, hence the tragedy of it.

Something tells me that the Phelps clan is biting off more than they can chew here. There is going to be serious money, security and celebrity involved in this funeral, and if they thought volunteer bikers were hard to get past for the soldier funerals, they're in for a whole new world of Access Denied.

Fortunately for them, though, the level of professional security likely to be present also means the Westboro jerks will be protected from retribution as well.

Some news just hits with a shock. This is one of those times. I'm not a huge Ledger fan, but I've liked him in everything I've seen him in, from 10 Things I Hate About You through Brokeback Mountain. With is role in the upcoming Dark Knight, he entered that small group of actors in genre films, and became "one of us." While totally one sided, that role created an attachment that adds an emotional level to this loss that is otherwise absent.

He was only 28, nearly 9 years younger than me, and despite initial speculation that his death was a suicide, I don't think that's the case. With a two-year-old of my own that I adore, I can understand how much of an anchor that is for me right now, and from all accounts was for him, too. I drive slower and more carefully, I'm watching what I eat and taking better care of myself, because I want to be around for as much of my son's life as I can cling to.

Drug interactions are tricky...despite what anyone things, the FDA is not out looking to make sure we're all safe...all the FDA does is take some steps to see that what's available isn't too dangerous. Even taking over the counter medicine for a prolonged time can be fatal, as recently befell a local game store owner near me...he tool Nyquil for about 2 weeks, and that cumulative effect caused his heart to fail.

Early reports are that he was suffering from pneumonia. If that's the case, I can so easily see him accidentally ODing, or even taking more medication than he should have without care.

I had pneumonia for six weeks, from September through October into November of 2007. I didn't write about it at the time because, well, my parents read my blog and I didn't want to worry them. But I was a mess. There was one day where I was coughing and coughing, and hadn't slept for three days because I was coughing so steadily and nothing was working. In desperation I grabbed a bottle of Robitussuin and downed damned near half the contents. Unspeakably stupid, but I was beyond caring. It did happen to give me temporary relief...plus it made me so loopy that I could have coughed up a lung and I wouldn't have noticed. But that's what a bout of pneumonia can do to you.

PAD

Geez. Heck of a way to spend one's birthday.

Glad you're better, but is hospitalization not prescribed for pneumonia?

Every once in a while, an actor's death will hit me, and this is one of them. Not only was he talented as all heck, he was an actor I could respect; he kept his private life private but was always gracious to his fans without being "look at me!!!"

Of course, the downside to that is people will never know what was going on in his life, leading to rampant speculation and gossip. It may sound like a cliche', but this is one actor who deserves better.

If I remember correctly, there was another death during production/filming here in Chicago for the Dark Knight. That's only going to lead to the "cursed" rumors that I'm sure will swirl around this now.

Link here to that earlier accident for those interested: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/09/death-on-the-da.html

That I know, I've only seen him in "Brokeback Mountain," but I did enjoy his work in it. It's a little strange for me, because it wasn't until Monday night that I got around to bringing the "Dark Knight" trailer up on the Internet to watch it. As my local comics shop owner said, "It ain't your daddy's Joker."

There was an odd bit in the obituary in our morning paper here in Fort Wayne. It mentioned Ledger was having trouble sleeping, basically, because The Joker had gotten inside him.

That's a scary thought on so many levels.

Robitussin won't hurt you that much, Peter. The OTC dose is 100mg/spoonful; the prescription dose is 800mg of the exact same stuff - about 1/2 a bottle or more. This is only double the amount of the same medication you pay a fortune for under the name Mucinex (they're all straight guaifenisin as the ingredient. Yes, Mucinex is only quadruple-strength robitussin).

What you should have had was what my doctor gives me - Robitussin CAD, which has codeine in it, which will definitely help you sleep (and should only be taken at the prescribed dose). Never, ever take extra Tylenol or Motrin - Tylenol will destroy every organ with very little OD'ing.

Glad you're better, but is hospitalization not prescribed for pneumonia?

Depends on the level of pneumonia. A few years ago I had what was diagnosed as "bronchitis / borderline pneumonia," and hospitalization was never even considered.

It certainly sounds like what Peter had was worse that what I had (in which case I really sympathize!), but I think it can hit the irrational-behavior stage well before it hits the hospitalization-required stage.

Susan -- I thought that Mucinex was more of an expectorant than a suppressant. Is Mucinex more like quadruple-strength Robitussin-CF (or whatever Robitussin variant is the expectorant)?

(Personally, I swear by Delsym when I've got a bad cough.)

TWL

Has there been any more information on the Terry Gilliam film Ledger was working on? Seems unlikely that it was far enough along to be completed without a replacement for him, but I haven't seen anything else about it.

I think I once was diagnosed with the same thing you had, Tim. They called it "minor pneumonia"...yeah, if that's minor I'd hate to see regular (much less serious)

The lack of sleep is what can kill you--not directly, just make you so loopy that you can end up doing stupid stuff, like taking your medication 10 times over a period of 2 hours, not remembering anything about taking it.

I was sadden to hear this news, and I wish the family all the best in this tragic time.

Regards:
Warren S. Jones III

I'm with you on hoping it just turned out to be some freak drug reaction rather than suicide.

There was a locally famous performer here (I saw him perform once, and used to work at the same place as his mother. Brilliant guy, a real loss) who had a bizarre death where they never could determine if it was suicide, or if he'd screwed up the use of his props while rehearsing for a show. I suspect the ambiguity of it must really be awful for the family, especially when you can't even explain the death. He didn't seem suicidal at the time, but shoot, how the heck would anyone know?

Here's hoping they can resolve this for the Ledger family.

For those of you who don't have artist Jim Lee among your MySpace friends, Jim has changed the default image in his profile to a piece of his art that has a poignant connection to Heath. He explains it in his latest blog entry. His MySpace page is at: http://www.myspace.com/jimlee00.

Thanks for the info, Tim. Yeah, I had bronchitis when I was 15, and again several years ago. I still cough a lot during the fall and winter myself, but never was prescribed hospitalization. I wasn't told it was borderline pneumonia, mind you, but it was pretty nasty. The coughs still are these days. Just a short while ago, I had such a strong one that I had to spit out what came up into a sink, and unfortunately, it's not uncommon.

I have Insomnia myself but take the anti psychotic
seroquel for sleep. Ambien is only a short term sleeping pill a hypnotic which usually looses it's effectiveness.

Basically I was working 3rd shift at 28 years old in 2002 and I would stay up for days without sleep.
Illegal drugs will keep you up and ruin your sleeping rhythm.

Playing a demanding role as a actor like the joker
could have basically driven him nuts.

What pisses me off is that Heath Ledger got a raw deal from the media in Australia. He was a fairly down-to-earth person who was loyal to his family and friends in his home country, but had to contend with media harrassment (which is why he moved from Sydney to America).

Around Christmas time, "The West Australian" newspaper reported that Heath Ledger left a message on the phone of Mark Naglazas (the newspaper’s head movie-writing journalist). Ledger basically said that he wasn’t sure if Naglazas was the right person to talk to, but he had just come back to Perth to spend Christmas with his family and friends, and he was glad that no one from the media had bothered him, and it was just like having Christmas when he was young. He also said he was looking forward to promoting "The Dark Knight" in Perth in 2008. It was a rambling, but sincere and somewhat touching message. Now, "The West" decided to write out a full transcript of Ledger’s message, which is a little self-serving on their part, but anyway, they ran it. You got the impression that the newspaper was soaking up Ledger’s gratitude to them. How great and considerate we were for leaving him alone! Then only a couple of days later, the newspaper started running a series of articles about what Ledger was seen doing in Perth. Over a series of days, they kept writing about what “our spy” had seen, and how Ledger was spotted with Perth model Gemma Ward, and how "The West" had been phoning up Ledger’s dad and asking him to spill the beans on whether or not there was a serious relationship going on. What a bunch of devious hypocrites. And "The West Australian"'s headline today is "BROKEN-HEARTED HEATH'S TROUBLED FINAL DAYS," with the paper speculating about how depression might have led to Ledger's death. Typical tabloid behaviour.

That's one thing suicides don't realize, much of the time...that their passing in that way adds a whole new level of trauma to their passing, which can afflict their loved ones for years to come.

Not that I'm saying Ledger was a suicide...I hope he wasn't. Just agreeing with Peter's last statement.

Okay, I've really been having a tough time processing everything about Heath's death but I think I've found something that just pisses me off to no end (even more than that sicko Phelps and his outrageous plans).
Posted at IMDb.com today:

Nicholson Warned Ledger About Joker Role

Jack Nicholson has hinted he warned tragic Heath Ledger against taking on the role of The Joker in the new Batman film. Ledger, 28 - who was declared dead at 3:30pm at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday - publicly declared himself exhausted and sleep deprived in November following the grueling shoot for The Dark Knight. He also revealed in an interview with the New York Times he'd resorted to taking sleeping pills - an overdose of which is believed to be the cause of his death - in a desperate bid to catch up on rest. And Nicholson, who famously portrayed the menacing Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 movie Batman, implied to the waiting crowd outside plush London restaurant The Wolesley on Tuesday night he spoke to Ledger about his role in The Dark Knight - and warned him about the pitfalls of taking on such a demanding challenge. When asked by the London crowds for his reaction to Ledger's untimely demise, a defeated Nicholson simply replied, "I told him so." Batman Begins prequel The Dark Knight is due to be released in July.

From all indications, Heath's take on the Joker is going to have as much in common with Nicholson's take as Nicholson's did with Cesar Romero's.
Perhaps if Nicholson took on some roles himself that actually required him to play the ROLE instead of turning the role into Jack Nicholson, he might have some legitimacy in offering advice about the "pitfalls of taking on a demanding challenge". As it stands, Nicholson comes off as pretty petty, even somewhat jealous, as though he's scared that Heath's Joker will become the definitive Joker.

"Pitfalls of taking on a demanding challenge" and "I told him so" are the media's words, not Nicholson's. Nicholson merely said, "I warned him." The meaning of this may unclear and subject to dispute, but the bullshit manner in which the media creates their own reworded interpretation of something and passes it off as fact is hardly a reliable basis for criticism.

In the end, Nicholson is trying to deal with someone's death, too. Plus, he actually met the guy, unlike us. So if he says something that isn't quite perfect, that's no big deal.

I don't think taking Nicholson's reaction...maybe the first he'd heard of Ledger's passing...on his way through a crowd in front of cameras, pretty much ambushed that way, as any indication of his feelings or reaction. "I warned him" without context is pretty meaningless. The fact that Nicholson appears to be smiling is likewise irrelevant, because he's in front of a bunch of cameras, and he's an actor. If anyone's going to school their emotions, it's going to be an actor...Oscar winning, I might remind everyone...during a red carpet event, or similar photog event.

And even it Nicholson did mean it in an "I told him so" way, tis a damnsight better than I've seen from other sources.

So much of what we say is open to (mis) interpretation. Perhaps Nicholson merely said something along the lines of 'I warned him taking the Joker role would change his life in ways he could never imagine'. Pretty innoculous. Headlines following this could then say "I WARNED HIM--NICHOLSON".

On the opposite side of the spectrum, ew.com has an interview with Christopher Plummer posted today regarding Heath Ledger.

Mr. Plummer had nothing but good to say. He mentioned that he thought Heath may have been ill, but was in apparent good spirits about the film they were creating. In fact, he said that Heath was looking forward to his first directing job.

All-in-all a nice, classy read. None of this "I warned him" or suicide speculation.

Yesterday, I finally watched the two-minute theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight, which apparently has been out for a while. That trailer shows what is easily the scariest Joker ever put on film.

Today, they seem to be more accurately quoting Nicholson. I think I saw it on imdb. Jack mentioned a bad experience he had while using Ambien and "I warned him" referred to someone else. I don't believe he'd met Ledger and the British press was mis-quoting him. Check on it, remember 90% of what you read online is bs.

Pandaphilwrote:

"Naturally Westboro Baptist has just announced they plan to picket his funeral over his work on Brokeback.
The sheer level of hatred I feel for these people is just beyond words right now."

If it makes you feel any better some FARKer has bought up http://www.godhatesheathledger.com to keep Phelps from getting it and is planing on using it to trash him and the Westboro crazies.

Trying to sift thru the reports to suss out what really happened it sure sounds like it was accidental to me. No matter the cause, like many have stated it sucks that there's a two-year old girl out there that has to grow up without a dad now.

-Chris
(I hope my html-fu is strong with this post - the preview function has never worked for me)

The official cause of death has just been announced: http://www.1010wins.com/Ledger-Died-of-Accidental-Overdose/1607125

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