heath ledger dead

[Guest josephga]

heath ledger was just found dead according the the local news

[jackhammer91406]

MSNBC has gone live with the story. He was found about 1 1/2 hours ago in his Manhattan apartment surrounded by pills. word is he had just wrapped the new BATMAN movie (playing the Joker) and was turning down roles.

Not much else so far.

[edjames]

Wow! What a shock. Such a tragedy. He was very talented and has a role as "The Joker" in the upcoming Batman movie...

 

Here is an AP Press release..

 

 

NEW YORK - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

[Guest DoctorMike]

extremely sad. its my understanding that he'd just become a new young father. his career was looking very bright and this is a shame...

 

Yesterday is officially considered (I read this in the NY Times) the "most depressing day" of the entire year and is actually called "Blue Monday" by psychologists and therapists. Maybe if more people were aware of the fact that it is a SUPER DEPRESSING day (caused by a variety of factors), tragedies such as this could be prevented.

[Guest ryan2552]

Another star extinguished too soon.

[+ deej]

>word is he had just wrapped the new BATMAN movie (playing the

>Joker) and was turning down roles.

>Not much else so far.

 

The new BATMAN is in post-production. He was actually in London filming his next movie as recently as a week ago.

 

Remember, folks, until the autopsy anything you read is pure speculation. So far I've heard everything from depression (no-doubt fueled by his recent separation, of course) to substance abuse problems.

 

Some news outlets have suggested "possible suicide", and others have quoted police as saying it didn't look that way. We won't know for a bit.

 

I liked this take from the SF Chronicle's movie critic:

 

http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/01/22/chronicle/archive/2008/01/22/DDG6UJRN4.html?tsp=1

 

A sad day, indeed.

[jackhammer91406]

Oh yeah, for sure a sad day.

And there are as many versions of what passes for truth as there are shows on TV covering the story.

I choose to believe that he was not self destructive. I believe one of the stories talked about the fact that he had pneumonia. I believe he probably dosed to treat his illness and died as a result of a terrible accident.

I just watched him in CASANOVA again the other night. This was another in a series of good performances showing great range and skill including THE PATRIOT, A KNIGHTS TALE, BROTHERS GRIMM, and of course BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

 

Forgive the hyperbole, but what an incredible shame.

[+ deej]

No hyperbole there at all. He definitely had great range and skill, and was very self-effacing and humble about it.

 

As that article I linked to said, some of his roles were already destined to outlive him. We just didn't think it would come so soon.

 

The thing that makes this tough is that unlike other young stars he wasn't known as a party boy. He wasn't constantly in and out of rehab. (Not that the public knew, anyway.) If it was Brittney or Lindsay Lohan, we wouldn't be so shocked.

 

He was the last celebrity we would think this would happen to. He seemed so grounded and, to use a cliche, normal.

 

Sad.

[alanalt]

I agree with deej that there's truly no hyperbole in describing this loss. I personally thought that Heath was as gifted as they come and could have been one of the truly great actors of his generation. It's funny because I was discussing his Best Actor nomination of Brokeback with a friend only on Sunday and how I thought he truly deserved it for bringing Del Mar to life with such a vital but restrained performance. No doubt members of the Academy thought they'd be seeing a lot more of Mr. Ledger in the future when they passed over him... which just goes to show you never know...

:-(