Heath Ledger - One Year Ago Today...

Heath Ledger

April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008

This portrait, titled "Heath: and painted by Ledger’s friend Vincent Fantauzzo, Ledger sat for the painting just weeks before he died of a drugs overdose in January (08), and the finished artwork sees the actor bare-chested and surrounded by two other whispering versions of himself.

Heath, with daughter Mathilda

Ledger with Jake Gyllenhaal in
Brokeback Mountain


Heath, in A Knight's Tale

The Joker

I was in San Diego...being treated for medical detox in a psychiatric ward (prior to going to Casa Palmera for the eating disorder) when I heard the news. I knew immediately it was an accident.

As narcisstic as this sounds, I knew I had been ingesting way more prescription drugs than Heath had--and he died. And I weighed 95 pounds. I remember thinking, "how on EARTH have I survived this mess?" I wasn't sure I would live yet.

Please forgive me for seeming to make this "all about me"...my head is full of all kinds of scary things right now. Someone I love deeply is in trouble and playing with the same kind of fire, and I don't know what to do.

By staff writers
NEWS.com.au
January 22, 2009 12:00am

TODAY marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Australian actor Heath Ledger.On this day in 2008, 28-year-old Ledger was found naked and unconscious in bed by a housekeeper at an apartment belonging to fellow actor Mary-Kate Olsen in SoHo, New York. When paramedics responded the actor was in full cardiac arrest. They attempted to perform CPR on him but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem later found Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs including pain killers and anxiety medication. The star had reportedly been troubled and hadn't been able to sleep since the intense experience of playing The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Everyone from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to John Travolta spoke of their sadness at the tragedy. "I had such great hope for him," Aussie actor Mel Gibson, and Ledger's co-star in The Patriot, said. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss." In February his body was flown to his hometown of Perth and cremated, with a wake held on Cottesloe Beach for family and friends. The Dark Knight opened a few months later, with Ledger's menacing performance as The Joker recieving critical acclaim. He went on to win a series of movie awards for the role in the best supporting actor category, including a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, and he was indeed nominated for an Academy Award early this morning. Ledger's monther, Sally Bell, said his Golden Globe would be given to the actor's three-year-old daugher with Michelle Williams, Mathilda. Matilda lives with Williams, Ledger's Brokeback Mountain co-star, in Brooklyn, New York. But we haven't seen the last of Ledger. He still has one more film to be released, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which he was part-way through filming when he died. Director Terry Gilliam enlisted the help of actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to share the remainder of Ledger's role, rewriting the film to allow the character to change appearance.