Heath Ledger Found Dead at Age 28: An In-depth Look

On January 22, 2008, Academy Award nominee, Heath Ledger was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m by the New York Police Department. CNN reports that Ledger's body was discovered by a housekeeper who went to wake him up after he had missed a masseuse appointment.

Ledger was found in his Soho apartment on Broome Street. The actor battled substance abuse for many years. Prescription and non-prescription sleeping pills were found at his bedside.

Ledger is most recognized for his role as the complicated Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. Ledger took his art seriously but often said, "I do this for fun. When it doesn't become fun any more I'll walk away."

Ledger had spent this past summer perfecting his role as the Joker in the upcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight. The actor had received criticism by veteran actor Jack Nicholson a few months ago.

Director, Christopher Nolan had tried his best to keep the Batman sequel under wraps. Every detail of the upcoming film has been very tight-lipped. From the cast, to the midwest location to the musical backdrops, Nolan was not allowing any leaks of the highly anticipated film.

Jack Nicholson was shocked when he found out about the film that had already been in production the entire summer. Upon the discovery that Heath Ledger was playing the Joker, Nicholson became livid about the secretiveness of the film.

Nicholson told MTV, "I'm furious they never asked me about a sequel with the Joker I know how do that. Nobody ever asked me," he angrily stated.

Ledger never responded to the criticism because he just wasn't that type of guy. He had been through enough experiences to choose his battles and know what was important as opposed to what was rhetoric. Life and confidence teaches you it is unnecessary to respond to things of minor importance. Ledger had bigger issues that he was fighting internally.

Although Heath Ledger was a paparazzi favorite, he tried his best to be private and strayed away from controversy not pertaining to his art. Ledger had learned from previous mistakes about being too open in the Hollywood scene. He shunned Hollywood and was not wrapped up in its chaos. The young father and ex-fiancee' of actress Michelle Williams had escaped the paparazzi by moving to Brooklyn, New York with Williams in 2005.

He had fallen in love with being a father and had recently stated that he was going to take a break from acting to raise his daughter. Ledger had been visibly madly in love with Williams and like most people in love, unknowingly expressed his love for her on set and in interviews. Unfortunately like in Ledger's previous relationships the engagement sadly fizzled. This was very difficult for him.

Many people only knew the Heath Ledger the read about in tabloids because of his high profile relationships. Ledger was actually a very serious actor who had experienced the dramatic intervals of success and failure in Hollywood. He was also an avid reader and thinker.

Ledger was an independent student of photography, art, and philosophy. He often read affirmations and always had quotes about love and life. He had a zest and affinity for life and people in general. He strongly believed in living in the moment.

He once said "I' m not good at future planning. I don't plan at all. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I don't have a day planner and I don't have a diary. I completely live in the now, not in the past, not in the future."

Ledger's past was a dynamic one. In 2000 the Aussie actor was named as one of the biggest hunks to hit Hollywood by the press. Critics were impressed by his role in Ten Things I Hate About You as well as his feature as Mel Gibson's son in The Patriot. He also received great reviews in A knights Tale as well as in Monster's Ball the role he credited to changing his approach to acting, inspiring him to strive for perfection in his artistic interpretation of future roles.

Ledger had become the next Hollywood "IT" star on screen and in the press. His fame drew all the A-list actresses to his side beginning a stream of massive press coverage of his love life. The actor a firm believer in true love and romance seemed to always be in search of love.

Publicly, Ledger had dated Naomi Watts beginning in 2002. The two had an on again off again relationship that ended with Ledger's zest for life being too much for Watts.

According to US Weekly, Watts had become very embarrassed with Ledger's wandering eye. After flirting openly with Scarlett Johannson, Watts stated she was disgusted and referred to their relationship as "a mistake." Watts said he was "immature" and "unruly" and made her look "stupid for being with him."

After Watts, Ledger was linked to a slew of other actresses and models including: Gemma Ward, Winona Ryder, Helena Christensen and Lindsey Lohan who Ledger had reportedly spent this past thanksgiving with according to Aussie NW magazine.

Perhaps the media interest in Ledger's love life and the continuous write-ups in US Weekly and People began to affect his seriousness and respect as an actor as it usually does. After receiving all of Hollywood's acclaim his next three films were considered failures and he was harshly criticized as "under-performing" by the press.

People often forget that acting is the off spring of theater which is one of the most serious dramatic arts. It is a trained science and serious students of the art go to school to study and master the art.

For some actors the idea of fame and celebrity precedes the study of the art of acting in its truest element. They forget that acting is a serious interpretation of emotions and characterization derived by writers. To be respected one must be convincing and making audiences forget that it is all fictional.

The Hollywood Foreign Press and members of the Academy usually shun thespians who are considered celebrities first and thespians second. It is proven that when an an artists' image becomes secondary to their actual work their credibility as an artist is challenged. This is displayed within the Academy of Arts and Sciences who professionally ignore pure celebrity and tabloid stars as displayed in their reward of the art through The Oscars.

After Ledger began to understand this he became very private about his personal life. He immersed himself in his roles doing massive research from the psychology of the character to their emotions and feelings. He did well in The Brothers Grimm as well as in Casanova.

In Brokeback Mountain, his approach of Ennis was a combination of his personal philosophies of true love, happiness and emotions. After extensively researching Ennis' background and applying his own personal convictions, Ledger told writer Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons the following:

"I had to go in and discover what was causing the inability to express and to love. What was the culprit of that? I figured it was some sort of battle, and the conclusion I came to is that he was battling himself and his genetic structure, he was battling his father and his father's opinion and tradition and fears that have been passed down and deeply embedded in him. Once I had that I wanted to physicalize it, it became all I was really left with."

Ledger disagreed with mere emotional love and felt that it could only come to life in the physical otherwise no matter how deep, it could be quite useless. Ledger's own struggles in his relationships and with himself was a vehicle of his approach.

He told Franklin that the tragedy of Brokeback Mountain and Ennis was "that he struggled physically with love...making it all purely potential but ironically he didn't amongst his children because with his children he felt safe because the love was not manufactured like it was with his own wife."

In his personal life it seemed that every time Ledger seemed to fall in love, he fell hard and then ran away upon the realization that that love was reciprocated. Ledger who had once passionately professed his love and adoration for Naomi Watts changed as their love progressed. For a romantic, Watts had found Ledger to be a bit callous and complacent about their relationship at the time they dated. Her sentiments would later be echoed by others.

Ledger's performance in Brokeback was very convincing in its emotion and he rightfully deserved the Oscar nomination. Perhaps like Ennis, Ledger was in search of obtaining tranquility through love but seemed to battle love in itself .

There is an Epicurean pleasure of intensity in love that is followed by pain. Most people who have had failed relationships, like Ledger avoid the pain at all costs especially if they become deeply in love with the other person. The confidence of being open with that person is shattered upon the self realization that there is the potential that the feeling may be reciprocated. This would force the love to become physicalized, opening up the chance that it could fail.

It is the fear of reciprocation that Ledger seemed to never have quite mastered. Because of past experiences there is an absence of intensity in all areas of lives. Ledger had also told Franklin that he was not consumed by the praises he had received for Brokeback Mountain. When asked about a possible Oscar nomination at the time, Ledger said, "It's an award season of opinions, so it's full of false sense of success and failure."

Ledger had learned many things about the universe and how it didn't always rotate the way one expected it to but he felt it was important to love and also love your art. He dealt with his issues by medicating himself through his substance abuse and massively delving into his roles.

Ledger always remembered that his acclaim had not come easy before his Oscar nomination so he consumed himself in the role.
Initialy he was excited about the complexity of the role and psychosis of the egnimatic Joker, but he was troubled by the depths of evil that he had to acquire and maintain in order to capture the mind of the Joker.

In a New York Times interview last November, Ledger described the joker as a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." Ledger had become slightly disturbed in the extreme dark psychosis of The Joker. He developed insommnia, struggling to sleep at night.

Ledger was also a contender for the role of Dan Edon, the British photojournalist who captured the atrocious images of civil war in Somalia and was killed there. It would have been a good role for Ledger because he only accepted roles with meaning that challenged his artistry. He also loved photography and capturing the little things in life. Unfortunately the role had been given to Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe.

Ledger told the press that he planned on fully taken a break from acting so he could do what he enjoyed most and that was raise his little Matilda. It is obvious he was greatly dissappointed by his inability to materalize his relationship with Williams for he loved her deeply as he loved his little Matilda Rose.

It is very unfortunate that Ledger will not get to experience the precious moments of his daughter blooming like the delicate rose she is. He also won't see the materialization of his hard work as the Joker in The Dark Knight . Heath Ledger's spirit and optimism will be very missed.