{"id":1298,"date":"2008-01-22T22:45:42","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T21:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/archives\/2008\/01\/23\/heath-ledger-has-died\/"},"modified":"2008-01-23T02:17:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-23T01:17:00","slug":"heath-ledger-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/01\/22\/heath-ledger-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Heath Ledger has died"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heath<\/a> Heath Ledger<\/a><\/strong> has died in New York, aged 28.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press have said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence, and police said drugs may have been a factor. He was 28.<\/p>\n

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 him know the masseuse had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met his wife, actress Michelle Williams, in 2005. Ledger and Williams had lived in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.<\/p>\n

Ledger was to appear as the Joker this year in “The Dark Night,” a sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins.” He’s had starring roles in “A Knight’s Tale” and “The Patriot,” and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in “Monster’s Ball.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is always very sad to hear about any death, but when a high profile actor dies there is a particular sting about the waste of life and the career that lied ahead.<\/p>\n

He will be seen this summer in The Dark Knight<\/a> as The Joker (the film is currently in post-production) and was only recently in London filming<\/a> Terry Gilliam’s new movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Obviously he’ll be remembered for his outstanding, Oscar nominated, performance in Brokeback Mountain<\/a>, and most recently for his part in the Dylan biopic I’m Not There<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I saw some of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus<\/a> being filmed on Blackfriars Bridge back in mid-December and posted some photos here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The film, which was due for release in 2009, also stars Christopher Plummer and has been described as a “fantastical morality tale set in the present day”.<\/p>\n

It is the tale of a Dr Parnassus and his ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom.<\/p>\n

The screenplay was written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown<\/a> who also collaborated with him on Brazil<\/a> and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures from the set that were taken recently in London and posted on Just Jared<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In what appears to be a sad and ironic twist, some of the photos are of Ledger’s character with a noose around his neck<\/a>. At the moment, reports are suggesting<\/a> that Ledger’s real life death was caused by some kind of overdose, although exact details are still sketchy.<\/p>\n

Aside from the awful personal tragedy, this is also a devastating blow for the production and director Terry Gilliam, who was only recently sounding so upbeat about the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

> BBC News report on Ledger’s death<\/a>
\n> Updates at TMZ<\/a>
\n> NY Times with more on the story<\/a>
\n> Various photos from The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus<\/a> at Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heath Ledger has died in New York, aged 28. The Associated Press have said: Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence, and police said drugs may have been a factor. He was 28. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}