Heath Ledger, 28, Academy Award nominated actor and star of “Brokeback Mountain” and “I’m Not There,” died Tuesday in a New York City apartment. Signs point to suicide or accidental overdose. An autopsy will be conducted on Wednesday.
A masseuse arrived at the fourth-floor apartment of a SoHo building for an appointment with Ledger on Tuesday afternoon, according to the New York Police Department.
The masseuse was let in by a housekeeper, who knocked on the door of the bedroom Ledger was in. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the door and found Ledger naked and unconscious with sleeping pills (both prescription and non-prescription) on a night table. After attempting to revive him, they called the police.
The NYPD issued a short summary of the death: “ON TUESDAY, 01/22/08, AT APPROXIMATELY 1530 HOURS, IN THE CONFINES OF THE 5 PRECINCT, POLICE RESPONDED TO 421 BROOME STREET AND FOUND A M/W/28 UNCONSCIOUS. THE VICTIM WAS PRONOUNCED DOA AT THE SCENE. M.E.’S OFFICE TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF DEATH. INVESTIGATION CONTINUES.”
Around 6:30 p.m., city workers exited the building with Ledger’s body in a body bag on a stretcher.
Initial reports indicated that the apartment may have belonged to child star Mary-Kate Olsen, but these allegations were later denied.
Ledger was born Heathcliff Andrew Ledger on April 4, 1979, and grew up in Perth, Australia. His parents, Sally Ledger, a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, an engineer, named Heath and his older sister, Katherine, after the main characters of Emily BrontÃ’s “Wuthering Heights.”
Ledger’s first major Hollywood role was in the 1999 teen romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You,” loosely based on William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” Ledger went on to star in 2000’s “The Patriot” and 2001’s “A Knight’s Tale” and “Monster’s Ball.”
In 2005, Ledger was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Brokeback Mountain.” On the set of “Brokeback,” Ledger met his former fiancee Michelle Williams (TV’s “Dawson’s Creek”), with whom he had a daughter, Matilda Rose, in 2005.
More recently, Ledger co-starred in “I’m Not There,” a Bob Dylan biopic in which several actors portrayed the folk singer.
Ledger had already completed principle filming and much of the post-production work as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” a follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins.” Ledger had also been cast in Terry Gilliam’s film, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” but had not completed filming.
