Mysterious death of troubled star in his New York apartment
LESS than three months ago, Heath Ledger spoke candidly of his
struggle with insomnia and stress over two demanding film roles. He
said he had become sleepless playing a “psychopathic,
mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” %26#151; his
description of his role as the Joker in the new Batman
film.
Insomnia was limiting him to an average two hours’ sleep a
night. He had taken a controversial drug, Ambien, sold in Australia
as Stilnox, which can have side effects including hallucinations
and breathing difficulties.
The drug didn’t help: one pill was ineffective and after a
second he slept for an hour but then woke, his mind racing. “I
couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was
still going,” he told The New York Times.
Yesterday, hours after shocking news broke that the Perth-born
star had been found dead in his New York apartment with
prescription drugs nearby, more details of his troubles
emerged.
On his recent visit to Australia to have Christmas with his
family, the 28-year-old actor had seemed anxious and distressed
about being separated from his two-year-old daughter, Matilda,
following the breakdown in his relationship with the child’s
mother, actress Michelle Williams.
Australian model Sophie Ward, whose supermodel sister Gemma was
recently dating Ledger, said the star had been “a bit edgy” during
his time in Perth. “We went to the movies and just did normal
stuff,” Ms Ward said. “He said he was going to London, but was
quite upset because he couldn’t see his daughter as much as he’d
like to.”
Amid the personal troubles, Ledger’s career seemed to be
continuing its upward trajectory. The assignment in London that was
keeping him from his daughter was a role in The Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus, directed by Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam.
News of Ledger’s death shocked an Australian acting fraternity
that would otherwise have been celebrating news of Cate Blanchett’s
dual Oscar nominations. Blanchett, who along with Ledger and others
portrayed Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, was among the dozens
of Australian and Hollywood actors, directors and politicians who
paid tribute yesterday to a man who seemed to be universally
regarded as a true artist.
Blanchett said she was “shocked and very saddened” by Ledger’s
death. “I deeply respect Heath’s work and always admired his
continuing development as an artist.”
A mourning Naomi Watts reportedly pulled out of all engagements
at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah after the death of her former
lover, whom she met in 2002 on the set of Ned Kelly and
dated for 16 months.
New York Police deputy commissioner Paul Browne said Ledger’s
housekeeper found him unconscious about 3.30pm when she went to
tell him his masseur had arrived for an appointment. He was
unresponsive and pronounced dead shortly after.
Mr Browne said the cause of death would not be known until
determined by a medical examiner. “He was found face down on the
floor at the foot of the bed. He had no clothes on.” There were no
signs of foul play.
The New York Post website reported that Ledger’s
apartment, which he rented for $US23,000 a month, looked “like a
temporary crash pad”. The bed was a mattress on the floor with
plain white sheets, and the apartment was not decorated.
Generic forms of Xanax and Valium, both anti-anxiety drugs
prescribed in Ledger’s name, were found in the house, along with
Ambien, according to law-enforcement sources.
Last year, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration put
extra warnings on Ambien after hundreds of adverse reactions during
sleep were reported. These include driving, having sex, fighting
and binge eating.
Drug and alcohol expert Paul Dillon said using Ambien while
suffering pneumonia, which Ledger was reportedly fighting, was not
recommended.
Unlike many Hollywood stars who cultivate an easy-going image to
mask difficult personalities, Ledger’s discomfort in media
interviews and disputes with paparazzi photographers may have
coloured perceptions of a man described by friends as private and
sensitive. Noni Hazlehurst, who starred with Ledger in
Candy, said he was a “kind and sensitive” man who simply
wanted to do good work.
“He was uncomfortable with celebrity, which made him a target
for fools, preferring to focus on being the best actor he could
be,” she said. “For that, he will always have the respect and
admiration of those who knew, understood and admired him.”
Fellow Australian actor Geoffrey Rush said he “admired Heath
enormously” and that he was “such a sensitive and committed and
daring actor”.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Arts Minister Peter Garrett joined
the tributes. Mr Rudd said: “It is tragic that we have lost one of
our nation’s finest actors in the prime of his life.”
The media frenzy generated by his passing yesterday was far
greater than anything Ledger would have had to confront in life.
Soon after news of his death broke, the New York police erected
barricades outside his apartment building as hundreds of media
representatives and onlookers gathered.
It was only after the morbidly curious had drifted into the
night that there seemed to be a moment of simple compassion and
unabashed sadness.
For maybe an hour, Lesleigh Valette and Ileana Diaz waited
opposite the five-storey Soho loft building, clutching a bouquet to
lay at its door. The pair, both theatre students, had come from
Harlem to pay their respects.
“We expected him to win an Oscar in our presence, but we didn’t
expect him to pass like this,” said Ms Valette, 18.
A Perth woman, Daleen Kupsch, 31, now living in lower Manhattan,
said at the scene that his death had devastated her. She said she
had grown up in Morley, near Ledger’s home town of Guildford. “I
feel so sorry for his little girl,” Ms Kupsch said.
A friend quoted by the New York Post website claimed
Ledger was battling depression. “I was hearing that he was
depressed,” said actor Jonathan Zarin. “I’m sure he must have been
in a really bad place. I’d been hearing that for a while.”
When asked about the rumours circulating that Ledger had a drug
problem, Zarin responded: “Everyone in Hollywood experiments with
drugs.”
Reports of his troubles came months after Ledger split from
Williams, who played his wife in Brokeback Mountain.
Williams was said to be “devastated” over his death and was flying
back to New York from Sweden, where she has been filming.
The couple lived together in Brooklyn with their daughter until
their separation. In a recent radio interview, Ledger discussed the
impact of his daughter on his life. “I feel good about dying
because I feel like I’m alive in her,” he said. “But at the same
time you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the
rest of her life.”
Ledger’s family yesterday denied speculation that he had killed
himself, saying he was not a suicidal type. Family representatives
said police had advised them his death was entirely accidental, the
TMZ.com website reported.
The results of an autopsy on Ledger are due this morning,
Melbourne time. Ledger’s family is expected to arrange for his body
to be flown back to Perth, where he will be laid to rest.
In a statement read out in Perth by his father, Kim, the actor’s
family yesterday thanked well wishers for their support. “He was a
down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and selfless
individual who was extremely inspirational to many,” Mr Ledger
said.
“Please now respect our family’s need to grieve and come to
terms with our loss privately.”
Ledger had a broad range of artistic interests. He directed
music videos for Sydney hip hop artist N’fa %26#151; a close friend
who was too distraught to comment yesterday %26#151; and recently
founded a music label with US star Ben Harper.
It also emerged yesterday that Ledger had recently shot and
edited a music video for a decades-old song by Nick Drake, the
English singer-songwriter who died in 1974 at 26.
The video, never seen in public, was reported by music channel
MTV to be a stark black-and-white composition, consisting mainly of
the director turning the camera on himself.
At the end of the video, Ledger drowns himself in a bathtub. The
song Black Eyed Dog was the last recording Drake made before
overdosing on pills.
With THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, TMZ.com,
AGENCIES
