Film critic James Christopher bids Heath Ledger farewell

Trailer for forthcoming film The Dark Knight

The family of Heath Ledger, the film star who was found dead last night in his New York apartment, have categorically denied that the 28-year-old Australian actor killed himself (Jenny Booth writes).

Kim Ledger, the actor's father, Sally, his mother, and Katie, his sister, appeared outside Mrs Ledger's house in Applecross today, when Mr Ledger read a statement speaking of the family's grief and asking for peace to mourn.

"We, Heath's family, confirm the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda, who was found in a peaceful sleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3.30pm (New York Time)," he said.

"We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their kind wishes at this time.

"Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life, but few had the pleasure to truly know him.

"He was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and unselfish individual who was an extreme inspiration to many.

"Please now respect our family's need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.''

According to police, Ledger was found by a masseuse and a housekeeper at around 3.30pm, after the masseuse arrived for an appointment. He was naked and face down on his mattress with a pill bottle next to his body.

They were “waiting for him to come out of the bedroom. When he didn’t come out, they checked on him and found the body at the foot of the bed,” said Commissioner Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York Police Department.

“There were prescription medications that included sleeping pills that were taken from the apartment. The reports that they were scattered around the body were untrue.”

Ambulance crews were unable to revive the star and pronounced him dead at the scene 11 minutes later. Two further bottles of pills, Diazepam and Alprazolam, both anti-anxiety drugs prescribed in his name, were also found in the house, according to law enforcement sources.

"We are investigating the possibility of an overdose," said Commissioner Browne.

He confirmed that the pills next to the bed appeared to be sleeping pills. "There were some still left in the bottle," he said.

Neighbours said that Ledger had been renting the flat for several months. Police sources allegedly described it as unfurnished and undecorated, with just a mattress on the floor with plain white sheets, like "a temporary crash pad".

The body was removed from the apartment last night in a black body bag strapped to a gurney, and loaded into the back of a van to be taken to the office of the Medical Examiner for forensic investigations. A post-mortem examination carried out today has proved inconclusive, and the results of toxicology tests will be available in a few days.

NYPD Detectives and the Medical Examiner say they will conduct a thorough investigation, but Ledger's death is not being treated as suspicious.

"As of right now there does not appear to be any criminality at all," a police spokesman said.

Ledger reportedly had pneumonia when he died. This month he had been filming in East London on his latest movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam, which was due to be released next year.

Last year the actor revealed in an interview that he had been taking Ambien sleeping pills, which are reported to have caused adverse reactions in a minority of patients, after having trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker in the newest Batman flick The Dark Knight. He called the character a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy".

"I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the New York 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 before he woke again, his mind still racing.

There are conflicting reports about the star's frame of mind, with some acquaintances claiming that he was depressed. The celebrity website TMZ.com, which broke the story, quoted a "confidant" as saying that the actor had previously had a substance abuse problem, but had been "clean" for a year.

Michelle Williams, Ledger's former partner and the mother of their two-year-old daughter Matilda, has cancelled her filming commitments in Sweden to fly to New York. The couple split last September after meeting on the set of the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, for which Ledger was nominated for a 2006 Best Actor Oscar for his role as a gay cowboy. He lost out to Philip Seymour Hoffman, for his portrayal of Truman Capote, but the film won three Academy Awards, including Best Director for Ang Lee.

Williams's father, Larry, said: "The saddest thing is his daughter, whom he just loved dearly.

"I think Tennyson got it right in the poem when he described someone as having died at a young age but burning the candles at both ends, and oh what a beautiful flame he made. That was Heath, what a beautiful flame he made and a great talent."

Naomi Watts, Ledger's former girlfriend who met the star on the set of Ned Kelly in 2002, is said to have cancelled all interviews and appearances at the Sundance Film Festival after hearing the news.

Ledger was born in Perth on April 4, 1979 to Sally Ledger Bell and her then husband, Kim Ledger. He first came to prominence by acting as a gay athlete in little-known Australian television series Sweat in 1996.

Aged 19, he left Australia for Hollywood, where he was spotted by Mel Gibson among 500 actors auditioning for the role of his son in The Patriot. The casting was Ledger's first big-time break and led to his leading role in A Knight's Tale.

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