I have nothing remotely clever or all that interesting to say about this because it's just so damn depressing, but it's certainly worth sharing with anyone who happens by here today.
According to the AP, he was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.
Even if there will still be a "Dark Knight" movie, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at him with that sinister Joker's grin.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Heath Ledger is dead
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15 comments:
Dude, I just now found out about this, and I'm devastated. Renfro, now Ledger? It's just too depressing...
I know there have to be a lot more important things going on in the world, munchkin, but it's been on my mind ever since I heard it about 90 minutes ago and I haven't been able to much work at all
I was so shocked.
I feel worst for his daughter. :(
So sad. I've always been a fan of his work and I was looking forward to what he was going to bring to the table now that he seemed to have been moving into a more evolved part of career. Very sad indeed.
He'll be missed.
I feel horribly saddened by the news. It's a cliche to trot out insincere plaudits at times like this but Ledger was a genuine talent. I've seen several supposed "clunkers" which he featured in, but always felt glad I'd seen them if only for his performance.
Heck, "Brothers Grimm" would have been a tedious, turgid train wreck of a movie, if not for his performance in it.
And of course he made some great movies too. "Brokeback Mountain" (I have a framed poster for the film signed by him on my living room wall), "Monster's Ball" and I don't care what anyone else says I thought "Cassanova" was pretty good too. Then there was "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale", as well as a whole bunch of other movies I'm sure I've forgotten.
This will undoubtedly cast a shadow over the upcoming Batman movie, but I can't imagine NOT seeing it, because Ledger was always worth watching.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Emma,
Being pregnant myself, I felt the same thing. That poor little girl is never going to know who her father is.
And I'm with you reel fanatic. There's Kenya, the war in Iraq, a thousand other things to think about, and yet I'm most depressed by Ledger's death.
Just wanted to add that I think we all need to be careful when using terms like "drug related death" because that conjures up a whole lot of assumptions that may not be warranted yet.
I think the comments he made to The New York Times back in November are depressingly telling, as evidenced by this report in the Australian press:
"Ledger was taking sleeping pills after completing I'm Not There, in which he played one of the many incarnations of singer Bob Dylan.
He told The New York Times in a November interview that he "stressed out a little too much'' during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy".
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the 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, the paper said."
I must say I was shocked when I got home from work and read this in the news. Ledger was one of my favourite young actors. He starred in some of my favourite films from the past few years (yes, I must admit The Brothers Grimm is one of my guilty pleasures...).
I just saw the news. I had to read it four times. I still don't believe it.
How horribly sad.
You're certainly right that that phrase gets thrown around way too often, Ian ... No matter how he actually died, it's just tremendously sad, but especially when loaded terms like that get thrown around carelessly
It's very sad news. It will definitely put a twist on how people see him in the Batman movie.
Very shocked by this. It will be very strange to see him in that Batman movie. It will be eerie in some ways. I remember when The Crow came out, the death of Brandon Lee hung over it. In both these guy's cases, the last film they were involved with had dark characters. Although, their deaths took place in different manners.
RF: I found out only this morning, while checking a few Web pages before breakfast. Shit... I'm not the hugest fan, but he was always watchable, and for me Casanova was among his most endearing work. The parallels with The Crow, as regards type of character and posthumous releases are there, of course.
Truthfully I thought Batman Begins stunk, and I was unlikely to go see the next one. But I suspect the lines will be even longer around the block now there's a morbid-curiosity factor.
Shame that the film will likely be remembered for this now, but I'm sure it'll still be released because Heath Ledger was always going to steal the show.
I think "Batman Begins" certainly had its issues, primarily that Christoper Nolan has a long way to get in filming action sequences, but I definitely couldn't say it "stunk," Mr. * ... "The Dark Knight" is easily among my most anticipated movies of 2008, and if there's any consolation in this depressing news at all (which there really shouldn't be), I guess it's that Ledger had apparently completed all his work as the Joker (according to Harry Knowles at AICN, anyways)
I wasn't thinking that I wanted to see "The Dark Knight" but with Ledger's tragic, early demise I feel I want to honor him in some way. So seeing his film is the best thing that I can think of to do.
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