http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/actor-heath-ledger-is-found-dead/

Guess Batman is going to be delayed?

Wow. Drug overdose, huh? If it's a suicide, it's extremely shitty. His poor daughter will have to grow up seeing him on TV and DVD.

No way! That's sad news

damn, that sucks. He was pretty good in most of the movies he was in.

Guess Batman is going to be delayed?

if thats the first thing you thought of, thats pretty cold dude

It's not. I'm reposting the link here. I had more to say on another forum where I got the link from.

yea, i thought so. Youre too nice for that lol

Batman is in post-production... so I bet he's already finished all of the filming.

The real fucking tragedy is the Terry Gilliam film he's currently working on. The insurance company is going to take a bath on that.

Gilliam can't get a break...

Tragedy all the way around. 28 is way too young to burn out like that. They're saying it may be a suicide...

On another board I'm on, they (forum members) have ruled out anything except suicide, since they're sleeping pills. I mean, I don't know much, but yeah, even every person who's ever seen any television ever knows that one way to commit suicide is by taking lots of sleeping pills -- that's pretty much common knowledge by now. So I have a hard time disagreeing with them.

Why so serious?

You can overdose from sleeping pills like ambien if combined with sedatives from other families. He could have been hitting up two doctors for sedatives that are lethal in combination with out he, the doctors or the pharmacists knowing about it.

Regardless of how he died, it's still a shame.

The New York Times published just two months ago shed a new light on the untimely death of Heath Ledger:

?I stressed out a little too much,? Mr. Ledger said.

He tends to do that. He is here in London filming the latest episode of the ?Batman?franchise, ?The Dark Knight.? (Mr. Bale, as it happens, plays Batman; Mr. Ledger plays the Joker.) It is a physically and mentally draining role ? his Joker is a ?psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy? he said cheerfully ? and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,? he said. "I couldn?t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.? One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

Even as he spoke, Mr. Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette. He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat, put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette. Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption. "It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself,? is how he put it, a little apologetically.

Heard about it this evening before i went out with some friends. Didn't even bother to phone the care police.

Sounds like he was bipolar. Sorry to hear of his loss, he wasn't a great actor, but he could have been in time. Should he have been given it.

EDIT: Not sure if that came across right, I'm going to play the drunk card if not...

Wow. Drug overdose, huh? If it's a suicide, it's extremely shitty. His poor daughter will have to grow up seeing him on TV and DVD.

If my only memory of my dad was of a gay cowboy supervillain clown, I'd off myself.

If my only memory of my dad was of a gay cowboy supervillain clown, I'd off myself.

you forgot

I read in a newspaper today that he was having trouble sleeping while being in the role of the Joker, so he started to take sleeping pills.

And yea, they're done filming, so no delay. Cold as ice.

I read in a newspaper today that he was having trouble sleeping while being in the role of the Joker, so he started to take sleeping pills.

And yea, they're done filming, so no delay. Cold as ice.

I know it's "acting", but I don't think I've ever seen an actor pull off a crazy-as-fark character without being more than a little twisted themselves. It is almost as if they must sprinkle (or pour) a dash of their own special flavor of insane or else the performance comes off like pauly shore.

I've actually heard from an actress that it's fun to play the villainess, you can just sort of let yourself go (stage production of 101 Dalmations; she played Cruella De Vil).

That said, from interview tidbits I've been reading here and there, it sounds like he was jumped up on something (possibly caffeine), and maybe he was trying to counter the effects with self-medication in the form of sleeping pills.

That said, if the joker is anything like in the comics the way Grant Morrison or Frank Miller portrayed him, he's going to be one serious psychopath.

i was shocked when i learned it was heath playing the joker, because the joker looks fucking badass in the previews, and i never pictured heath like that before. apparently he locked himself in a hotel for one month to prepare.

Have you seen the pictures of Heath as the Joker? He looks psychotic. I have a feeling he's an amazing Joker.

Have you seen the pictures of Heath as the Joker? He looks psychotic. I have a feeling he's an amazing Joker.

i honestly cannot wait to see the film, because i haven't been this excited over a villain than the joker played by heath. i'm not scared of clowns or anything, but if i saw heath's joker on the street, i'd high-tail my ass the other way.

i bet the dark knight will be financially more successful because of his untimely death.