Heath Ledger dies of accidental prescription drug overdose
On this day in 2008 Hollywood mourns a talented young actors life cut tragically short after the body of 28-year-old Heath Ledger is found by his masseuse and housekeeper on the floor of his rented apartment in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.Best known for his Academy Award-nominated turn as the closeted gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in the director Ang Lees acclaimed Brokeback Mountain (2005) Ledger was a former child actor from Australia who first became known to American audiences in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.He later passed up other teen comedies and was rewarded with a big break when he landed the role of Mel Gibsons son in the Revolutionary War drama The Patriot (2000).After appearing in the well-reviewed Monsters Ball (2001) Ledger starred in two critical and commercial flops A Knights Tale (2001) and The Four Feathers (2002).
He roared back in 2005 with lead roles in no fewer than four films including Casanova in which he played the title role.It was Brokeback Mountain however that truly made Ledger a star and earned him comparisons to acting greats such as Marlon Brando.Ledger lost the Best Actor Oscar to Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) but Brokeback Mountain cemented his reputation as an A-list actor and a fixture in the pages of celebrity-obsessed magazines.This last rolewhich he fulfilled uneasilywas intensified by his relationship with the actress Michelle Williams whom he met on the set of Brokeback Mountain.
The couple had a daughter Matilda born in October 2005 and were often photographed in various scenes of domestic bliss.In September 2007 however Ledger and Williams announced they were separating and Ledger moved from their house in Brooklyn to the rented SoHo apartment.Though his personal life might have been in turmoil Ledgers professional life was flourishing in the months before his death.Near the end of 2007 he was in London filming Terry Gilliams The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
In addition to a role as one of several Bob Dylan alter egos in Todd Haynes Im Not There he had also recently finished work on The Dark Knight the latest Batman film in which Ledger played a younger version of the Joker the villainous role originated by Jack Nicholson.In interviews that would be scrutinized exhaustively after his death the actor admitted that the Joker role had been difficult for him and that he had been using prescription drugs to manage recurring bouts of stress and insomnia.Soon after the masseuse and housekeeper discovered Ledgers body emergency crews arrived on the scene but were unable to revive him.Media speculation about his possible illegal drug use intensified over the next two weeks until on February 8 the New York City Medical Examiners Office released the results of toxicology tests performed on Ledgers body.
The report stated that he died of an accidental abuse of prescription medications that included commonly known painkillers anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills.After memorial services in New York and Los Angeles Ledgers family took his body back to their native Australia he is buried next to his grandparents in his hometown of Perth.
