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Heath Ledger found dead in NYC apartment
Oscar-nominated actor reportedly discovered in Mary-Kate Olsen's home
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
updated 3:33 p.m. MT, Tues., Jan. 22, 2008
NEW YORK - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28.
According to the New York Times, Ledger was found naked and unconscious with pills strewn all around him in an apartment owned by actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Police sources told the Times that the death appeared to be a suicide.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the apartment. The housekeeper, who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, found him unconscious at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET, according to the New York Times. After receiving no response from the actor after shaking him, they called authorities.
“We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,” Browne said. “There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.”
The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met actress Michelle Williams, in 2005. Ledger and Williams had lived in Brooklyn with their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.
Ledger was to appear as the Joker this year in “The Dark Knight,” a sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins.” He’s had starring roles in “A Knight’s Tale” and “The Patriot,” and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in “Monster’s Ball.”
Ledger grew up in Perth, and began doing amateur theater at age 10. At 16, he moved to Sydney to pursue an acting career, quickly landing TV movie roles and guest spots on Australian television.
After several independent films and a starring role in the short-lived Fox TV series “Roar,” Ledger moved to Los Angeles and costarred in “10 Things I Hate About You,” a teen comedy reworking of “The Taming of the Shrew.”
Offers for other teen flicks came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn’t like.
“It wasn’t a hard decision for me,” Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. “It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, ‘You’re crazy,’ my parents were like, ‘Come on, you have to eat.”’
His latest role was in “I’m Not There,” in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan — as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.
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