Film critic James Christopher bids Heath Ledger farewell

Trailer for forthcoming film The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger’s family called the Brokeback Mountain star’s death a tragic accident yesterday, as investigators focused on a possible drug overdose.

A post-mortem examination was performed on the 28-year-old Australian actor after he was found lying naked, face-down in his bed in a rented loft apartment in New York on Tuesday, with bottles of prescription anti-anxiety pills and sleeping medication nearby.

Police also recovered a rolled-up $20 bill, but said that it bore no visible drug residue and that no illegal narcotics were found. “The nature of the way the bill was folded might indicate it was possibly used for drugs,” Ray Kelly, the New York police commissioner, said.

The New York medical examiner ordered tests, including toxicology and tissue testing, to determine whether Ledger was killed by a cocktail of prescription drugs. “We should have results in about ten days,” Ellen Borakove, the coroner’s spokeswoman, said.

Ledger’s body was discovered by a housekeeper who tried to wake him when a masseuse arrived for an appointment at 3.30pm on Tuesday. The housekeeper had reportedly heard him snoring at about 12.30.

Police found bottles of diazepam and alprazolam — anti-anxiety drugs — in the loft, as well as Ambien sleeping tablets. The New York Post reported that Donormyl, an antihistamine used as a sleeping aid, and a packet of the insomnia drug Zopiclone were also found on the star’s bedside table.

Ledger had returned to New York at the weekend from London after completing the British leg of filming on Terry Gilliam’s fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The future of the picture, which also stars Christopher Plummer, the English model Lily Cole and the singer Tom Waits, is now in doubt. The Batman sequel The Dark Knight, in which Ledger gives a ghoulish interpretation of the Joker, was to be released on July 18. One insider told Variety: “The Joker character is dealing with chaos and life and death and a lot of dark themes . . . Everyone is going to interpret every line out of his mouth in a different way now.”

Ledger had admitted suffering from insomnia after breaking up with his Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams, the mother of his two-year-old daughter Matilda. He said that his roles as the Joker in The Dark Knight and as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There had left him “stressed out a little too much”. In November he told The New York Times: “Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night.”

His father, speaking to reporters in Perth, Western Australia, called his death “tragic, untimely and accidental”. Kim Ledger said that his son was down-to-earth, generous, life-loving and inspirational to many.

Ledger’s death provoked an outpouring of grief among his showbusiness friends as fans left flowers and lit candles outside his home in the SoHo neighbourhood.

Williams, his ex-fiancée, left Sweden yesterday, where she was shooting Mammoth, to fly to New York with their daughter.

Naomi Watts, an ex-girlfriend who met Ledger on the set of Ned Kelly in 2002, cancelled all engagements at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Cate Blanchett, who had been nominated for an Oscar hours earlier for her role in I’m Not There, said that she was “shocked and very saddened”.

Mel Gibson, who played Ledger’s father in The Patriot, said: “I had such great hope for him. He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss.”

Ledger recently shot and edited a music video for Black Dog, by the late British singer-songwriter Nick Drake. It was the last recording Drake made before overdosing on anti-depression pills in 1974 at the age of 26.

Roll call

Oliver Reed (1999) Died of heart attack in Malta filming Gladiator
Brandon Lee (1993) Accidentally shot on set of The Crow.
Roy Kinnear (1988) Died after fall from horse in Spain filming Return of the Musketeers
Natalie Wood (1981) Drowned in US near yacht she shared with husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher Walken while filming Brainstorm

Source: Times database

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