Heath Ledger = dead [Archive] - Gentlemen of Leisure

Rhun

01-22-2008, 06:13 PM

http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/heath-ledger-dead-at-28/2008/01/23/1201024937592.html

Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger, 28, has died of a possible drug overdose involving sleeping pills in New York, police have confirmed.

The actor was sick with pneumonia when he died, the TMZ.com website has reported.

TMZ said it had been contacted by representatives of Ledger's family, who said they'd been told by police that the actor's death was accidental.

The representatives said the family was particularly distraught over media speculation that he may have taken his own life.

Ledger was found dead in his bed at his apartment on Broome Street, SoHo, in Manhattan, by his housekeeper about 3.35pm local time.

Ledger's body was removed from his New York apartment and wheeled into the back of a medical examiner's van.

A huge crowd of news photographers gathered outside the apartment in the SoHo building lit up the scene with flashes as authorities wheeled his body on a trolley from the complex into the van.

A police spokesman told smh.com.au the cause of death was unknown, despite the presence of drugs.

"We don't have that [the cause of death] yet. The matter is still under investigation," the spokesman said.

He was pronounced dead at 3.45pm (7.45am AEDT) by a medical examiner who went to the apartment.

Naked and unconscious

Ledger was naked and unconscious, The New York Times reported.

New York police officer Martin Brown said investigators would most likely not know the cause of death until an autopsy was held on the body.

Asked if foul play had been ruled out, Officer Brown said it had not.

"That's what needs to be investigated," Brown told AAP.

"It takes a while. The medical examiner will do an autopsy and they will determine the cause of death."

Pills found

US television network NBC reported his body was found surrounded by pills.

The New York Times reported Ledger was discovered by a masseuse who arrived at his apartment for an appointment.

The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Ledger's bedroom, The New York Times reported.

When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Ledger unconscious.

They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities.

"It's all preliminary at this stage," Officer Brown said.

"We had a call for an unconscious male at 421 Broome Street.

"At 3.26pm [New York time] we got to the scene and there was an unconscious male.

"We called EMS [ambulance] to the scene and EMS pronounced the unconscious male dead.

"Preliminarily, it is believed it is the actor Heath Ledger."

Police officers stood guard at the Soho apartment building as a crowd of photographers gathered outside.

Asked about reports of the pills in Ledger's apartment, Brown said: "I can't confirm that but I've heard the same thing."

Ledger was taking sleeping pills after completing I'm Not There, in which he played one of the many incarnations of singer Bob Dylan.

He 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 Times.

"I couldn't 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.