Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York City apartment today. No official report has been released, but it appears the cause of death was an overdose of prescription sleeping pills.
Born Heathcliff Andrew Ledger on 4 April 1979 in Perth, Australia, he may be best known for playing a gay cowboy opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. He was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for that role, and shared the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss with Gyllenhaal.
At the time of his death, Ledger was working on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (currently planned to be released in 2009), and had finished his work as “The Joker” in the forthcoming The Dark Knight. His other genre credits include The Brothers Grimm (2005) and The Order (2003), and he starred in the short-lived tv series Roar (1997).
He is survived by his two-year-old daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, whose mother is his former girlfriend (and Brokeback Mountain co-star) Michelle Williams.