Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008)

I am utterly stunned I ... Heath Ledger.

I just can't wrap my head around this. It's like it's some horrible evil media prank. Only, it's true. On the news. Details still emerging. Found in an apartment in Soho.

When I wrote about Heath --usually in connection with all the Brokeback Mountain coverage in 2005 and 2006 and in my "favorite actors of the decade" list... I thought the sky was the limit. What a loss for the cinema.

105 comments:

Anonymous said...

prayers out to his family and friends, especially his young daughter. this is so sad. :-( such a talented young man

Robert said...

I mean I find myself wanting to say something, but what can you say? This is totally and utterly shocking.

It's very very sad.

Jason Adams said...

Oh my god.

Anonymous said...

Oh god, i am absolutely shattered for his daughter. This is unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

so sad, so sad

Anonymous said...

This is so sad, I feel like crying.

Anonymous said...

Is this real?

I can't believe this.

Rob

NATHANIEL R said...

I haven't been this overwhelmed by something like this since River Phoenix. no more posts today... I just can't.

oh my god

Anonymous said...

I'm like tearing up right now. How could this happen? Pills were found near his body? Suicide or accidental overdose? All I can see is Ennis right now.

I'm completely devastated. All of that promise gone forever.

:(

Anonymous said...

A collective OH MY GOD went around the office 15 minutes ago. It's just insanely sad.

J.D. said...

Rifhnwefwefniwnas.

Sad.

Debby said...

No way! No way!
is true?
really for sure?

russtifer said...

Utterly unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's just.

Ugh.

Lucas Dantas said...

omg i'm so shocked!!
i don't even know what to make out of it.
they say they found pills next to the body... damn!

Anonymous said...

how very sad & tragic....i can't quit you heath. big big loss. rip, pal.

lylee said...

This is really, really sad. He was so talented...could have been one of our greats.

It's like some kind of curse is striking promising young actors under 30...no more, please!

Calum Reed said...

It's devastating.

Glenn Dunks said...

It's 9am here and I woke to the sounds of my phone beeping with messages and expected them to be "have you heard the Oscar nominations?" blah blah blah.

Fuck the Oscars, I actually think I'm gonna cry after this.

I think I'm speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.

Beau said...

I'm fucking reeling.
I am going to miss this man so much.

Glenn Dunks said...

Cancel that, I am crying as I type this.

Anonymous said...

No...

Ennis. Joker. He was just beginning. This is not fair.

Rest in Peace. :(

Peter said...

jesus

Anonymous said...

My God! At least he left behind a beautiful legacy with Brokeback Mountain, and his daughter Matilda.

Is THIS the wakeup call Lohan/Britney/Winehouse needs?

I wonder if he finished filming his part in the Gilliam movie. SO many questions.

Anonymous said...

This is so sad, I don't want to see the Dark Knight his last performance.

R.I.P.

Anonymous said...

What a waste. What a waste. I can't even articulate myself properly, as with most people I'm sure.

I was upset when Heath and Michelle divorced (I thought they'd be the new Newman-Woodward). But this, this is just beyond my comprehension.

gabrieloak said...

This is so unfair. Such a great talent. I sometimes wonder if great actors should stay away from filmmaking altogether. They are better off being on the stage.

Anonymous said...

Any word from his family?

Anonymous said...

So tragic, but I'll always remember him from Brokeback.

Mikey Filmmaker said...

I still can't believe it. A sad day for film.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that he gave us all a gift w/ his monumental performance in Brokeback that is recorded for eternity. We find ourselves, at this unbelievably sad time, truly blessed for that.

SusanP said...

I'm just starting to take in this news. It's just so tragic. Definitely makes me think of River Phoenix.

That it was drug-related or suicide is just speculation right now, but given his age and the circumstances in which he was reportedly found, it sadly doesn't seem like a leap.

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone who is caught in the downward spiral of addiction or depression can necessarily learn from others what they must find out for themselves. If that were the case, we would not see these types of tragedies repeated, over and over and over.

So sad.

Unknown said...

So tragic, and so shocking. I don't know what to say.

Anonymous said...

what a shock.

i loved him in bbm god it will be looked on in years to come as one of the great performances,he had so much more to give to film,where does this leave the batman film?


x to his daughter she is the one who'll feel it most.

a shadow has been cast over the oscars for definite this year.

NATHANIEL R said...

he had already wrapped the batman film. but he was currently filming that project for Terry Gilliam

they're saying something about the olsen twin's apartment.

i'm confused. so upset

Anonymous said...

Renfro, Ledger...please do not let this pattern continue.

Catherine Cantieri, Sorted said...

I think he was renting an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen while filming something in NYC. Technically "in her apartment," but not in the sense that it usually means.

Fuck, man. He had such an amazing career ahead of him.

Anonymous said...

Shame he didn't agree to announce the Oscar nominees this morning. Might be alive if so... :-(

Anonymous said...

Forget rumours about drugs and depression. This is how i want to remember the man:

http://weblogs.variety.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/22/ledger_holmes_finger_paparazi.jpg

He always did come across too peachy after the split. But he seemed content in that pic.

Anonymous said...

sorry....i have to ask....who are the olsen twins? (I am the one who did not know who Edith Piaf was). Here I go again.....

Anonymous said...

This is terrible and tragic. He was only 28, with a beautiful daughter. I am tearing up...

Let this be a wake-up call to the world.

Glenn Dunks said...

It just seems to unfathomable, doesn't it?

I hope it was an accident. I don't want Heath's memory tarnished by drugs. Although, River Phoenix's memory hasn't been ruined.

Still... just... wow. Utterly devastating.

MoStapletonFan said...

I've been a fan since Monster's Ball ; he broke my heart in that movie. So sad. So sad for all involved.

Anonymous said...

It was pills, no mention of hard drugs. Lets leave it at that, please until further information is given.

André said...

indeed a great lost!

Anonymous said...

so sad for him, he was such a talented actor in the rising. My prayers for his family.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

i am really really depressed.... I am... errr I should not be so down like this but I am I don't know why. I feel like ennis right now...

Anonymous said...

Just logged on to get the Oscar nominations and instead got this horrible news instead.

I thought I'd mis-read it.
I wish I'd mis-read it.

Words are my tool, but not today.

Anonymous said...

Sad news!! From Mexico: Descanse en paz uno de los mas prometedores actores de su generacion y de las tierras australes.

Not only a good actor for Brokeback Mountain... Candy, Four feathers, Monster's ball, The patriot, Two hands, ned kelly... his legacy is full of great films and performances...

Anonymous said...

If they do broadcast the Oscars this year, he'll get a standing O when his face/name appear in the 'In Memorium' segment. So sad.

Anonymous said...

I thought this was a horrible, horrible joke...until I saw it on CNN.com. I didn't want to believe it. Only 28 - and so much talent, so many great roles we'll never see. Ennis was only supposed to be the beginning...

My thoughts and prayers go to his family.

Glenn Dunks said...

That poor girl, Matilda. And Michelle for that matter.

Anonymous said...

Now the reports are that it was an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, and that he was coming off of a year of recent sobriety.

Oh Heath. I can't even process this properly. :( :(

Emma said...

Really upset. Such a waste of a talent.

Abbie said...

I was really hoping it was some sort of sick, twisted joke, and then it appeared on BBC news.

I've been on the verge of tears ever since.

Anonymous said...

I was so looking forward to the fun of seeing him as the Joker....So much for fun.
sob..

Glenn Dunks said...

Watching it on the actual news - and not just reading about it on the internet - opened the floods.

And, it may sound silly, but being Australian I just feel an even stronger connection to him. His performances in Aussie films Two Hands and Candy rank as some of his very best.

RahulB said...

So unbelievably sad.

I just cannot begin to fathom...this...

:( :( :(

John T said...

Just, unbelievable. What a talented man, what a horrible loss.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't believe it. He really is the James Dean of his generation. Brilliant in "Brokeback", but who knows what he could have accomplished?

Glenn Dunks said...

I don't believe there's any truth to the rumour that he committed suicide because he was upset over Cate Blanchett getting an Oscar nomination and not him. That's just ridiculous.

Glenn Dunks said...

Oh god, his IMDb profile has a "date of death". Now it's like even more official.

They're actually showing him being put into an ambulence. Jesus christ.

Lily said...

come on virginia show me a sign
send up a signal i'll throw you a line
stain glass curtian you're hiding behind never lets in the sun
darling only the good die young

Anonymous said...

I'm devastated... torn apart really.

This just can't be real...

John T said...

There's just never enough time, never enough...

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hijack this topic with this frivolous post.

sorry....i have to ask....who are the olsen twins? (I am the one who did not know who Edith Piaf was). Here I go again.....

That's okay, Jimmy. Really, they shouldn't be famous except for maybe being some kind of trivia about who played Michelle on the ABC show Full House back in the 80's-90's.

I don't know if you know what Full House is but it was part of the TGIF group of shows on ABC, and I think it was on a different night than Friday at one point too. Mostly I just remember the TGIF block when I was a tween. Anyway,
the show was about a widower with three kids DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle, who invited his brother in law and best friend to move in with him. (John Stamos and Dave Coulier respectively. The latter was said to be who Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" song was about.)

Anyway, Michelle or Mechelle as she's known at Television Without Pity was the youngest, and to get around child labor laws, they used twins, in this case Mary Kate and Ashely Olsen. (They're not really identical twins, but I can't tell the difference between them.)

Other than portraying Michelle, they got rich by cashing in on their fame by marketing every kind of product under the sun geared toward young girls who knew them their line of direct to videos and ABC Family show, "Two of a Kind".

So now the little (insert degrogatory word of choice here) are multi-millionaires, who got lucky that they're manager had the smarts to create a brand for them. I think both or at least one was trying to go to NYU, but dropped out now. One is on "Weeds" and possibly the same one is rumored to be dating Lance Armstrong. I don't know which is which, and I feel that it's already sad that my brain can hold all this trivial information yet I can barely do math in my head without freaking out that I need a calculator.

Anonymous said...

This is surreal, really. I was just thinking about his portrayal of the Joker from the new trailer this morning.

"Why so serious?"

Because you're gone.

Anonymous said...

If its any consolation, tmz is reporting that the Ledger family were told that there was no apparnt sign of suicide and that he may have been suffering pneumonia when he died.

Sorry, but Ledger was an actor i greatly admired and respected. I dont want anything to unjustly tarnish his memory. He doesnt deserve that.

Anonymous said...

back once more to say...Nathaniel, your words on your "actors of the decade" list brought tears streaming down my cheeks.

It cannot be said enough - so young, and so much talent. And so very very heartbreaking.

Glenn Dunks said...

Here's an article about Ledger's family saying he didn't commit suicide.

lawyer tony fernando said...

I just got home and heard the news, I´m so devastaded, gee, it was like yesterday that we were hoping for oscar noms for brokeback and perhaps an award for his amazing performance, oh God it´s so unfair, we all knew that he was just partying too much, but this? Oh poor Mathilda and his friends and family, it´s just so FUCKING UNFAIR!
Nat, I really thought about you when I heard this, it´s so crazy, thank you for having this space for our grief , thank you!
Heath Ledger RIP, que Deus te ilumine, e que você siga a sua luz!
Please all of you hear, all of us, good vibrations to his family and his soul.

lawyer tony fernando said...

oh God, 1st brad renfro, now you Heath, God, tonight I was going to a party, just wondering how life it´s so hard but we still can have hope, sorry, but now it´s just that moment that it´s hard to believe this.

Anonymous said...

Heath...I swear.

Anonymous said...

i fell in love with him on "10 Things I hate about you"

Heath Ledger is River Phoenix

Glenn Dunks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Fuck. This hits hard.

Anonymous said...

T_T

God, such a talent, with so much promise ahead of him.

RIP, Heath. You'll be missed.

Glenn Dunks said...

here is a beautiful piece.

Rare is the performance that can honestly be called a "revelation," but that's what it felt like to watch Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

Anonymous said...

Larry King just showed footage of Heath being rolled out of his apartment, and then there's a montage of his roles playing to the "Brokeback" theme. :( It's just too much to take. Ennis. I can't believe how much this has affected me so quickly.

Anonymous said...

As much as I admired his previous work...as much as I was looking forward to his upcoming work...what really gets me is how much I will regret not seeing the work he never got a chance to do.

He will be missed.

Glenn Dunks said...

I was planning on seeing I'm Not There next week, too. That would be a strange feeling.

Mel said...

I liked him ever since 10 Things I Hate About You. I was so looking forward to The Dark Knight, but now when I watch it it will be tinged with sadness. They'll probably add something in the end credits, dedicating that film to him

Craig Hickman said...

River Bottom all over again.

I can hardly breathe.

R.I.P.

Ben said...

I did immediately think it was a hoax or... something. 'Cause it's too bizarre to be true.

E Dot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
E Dot said...

I have no words. May he rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

So much of my pain is for a little girl who will not get to know her father... a man who touched my life as well as lives and hearts around the world. May he rest in piece.

Anonymous said...

So much of my pain is for a little girl who will not get to know her father... a man who touched my life as well as lives and hearts around the world. May he rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

His performance in "Candy" was also exceptional

Deborah said...

I'm right there with you in the stunned and disbelieving department, Nathaniel. It is so unbelievably sad.

I can't even say what his portrayal of Ennis meant to me. A lot of everything, really. And I thought that he would give us dozens more as good.

I am so sorry for this loss. So very sorry.

adam k. said...

I still haven't even processed this. I haven't watched the news footage cause I was in class all day. I literally thought it was a joke when I first heard, cause it was from a text message on someone's phone.

"Heath Ledger found dead in Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment"? Clearly a ridiculous prank. Except not. God.

River Phoenix all over again. My Own Private Idaho all over again.

I really would like to know the cause of this, but god, so, so sad. It's gonna hit me for real soon enough. I'm not looking forward to that...

Anonymous said...

Goodbye Heath. Thank you.

www.therecshow.com

Anonymous said...

I was so happy about the oscar noms last night when I went to bed and then I turned on the computer this morning and am now completely depressed :(

His poor little daughter. :(

my favourite Heath performance, even more so than BM, was in the oz film Candy. He was so freakin good in that. I also loved him in Two Hands.

tspatil said...

This is an absolute tragedy, because Heath Ledger was a brilliant actor at the beginning of a very promising career. It will be painful to think of all the great films that he won't be a part of.

Lucas Dantas said...

i wrote him a memorial.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

im dedicating my blog entries the whole 2 weeks for heath ledger. celebrating the greatness that was and that could have been

Sid said...

I just woke up and read this! I'm utterly stunned. A terrible loss for cinema. It's unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

Oh my God!

:(

Anonymous said...

I can't believe how monstrously unfair this is. Such a wonderful actor and person, why do the best always have to go? So unfair and heartbreaking at the same time.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

oh heath i wish i knew how to quit you...

Glenn Dunks said...

I just reread the actors of the aughts piece. "I don't want this one monumentally moving star turn to haunt me for decades"

well that's that then, isn't it? Damn.

Sam Brooks said...

Condolences to his family and friends. A wasted life; a wasted talent. The evils of drugs appear to continue, prescription or no.

Anonymous said...

It makes me think how fragile life is. Heath you left us wanting so much more...Love ya!

Glenn Dunks said...

Brook - I need to make this joke just to make myself feel better, okay - don't give the scientologists any more ammo!

John Travolta is going around saying that Ledger was his favourite actor and that his perf in Brokeback will probably never be bettered.

As much flack as he gets, that's really amazing thing to say.

Anonymous said...

I believe his death cause is accidental, because i don't believe to suicide... He was a talented, atractive, young and succesful actor and he had a new relationship with an aussie model... But the most important fact is his incondiccional love to his daughter... He has the courage and decision to leave his career in stand by and dropping up important roles in "Australia" and "no country for old men" for being a father in full time... Big actors like geoffrey Rush and Lena Olin have admiration to him... And an important difference to Renfro... he hasn't any hughe scandal or conflivts with law or any person. His private life was sacred to him...

Rest in peace... Oneof the best actors of his generation

Anonymous said...

This saddens me deeply that i will never see his smiling face again... Im still in utter shock! i mean how can someone so young yet so talented lose there life so suddely.

My heart goes out to Heaths Family, Friends, Michelle and Matilda....

Never be forgotten,
Will be so sadly missed!!

RIP xxxxxxxxxxxx