Actor and Academy Award nominee, Heath Ledger was found dead at his Manhattan home Tuesday morning. Details are sketchy thus far and no cause of death has been announced, but drugs are believed to be a factor.
He was found dead in his bed in one of his residences in Soho by his housekeeper at 3:35 PM ET today. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ they believe it was not a crime, adding that prescription pills were found near his body.
According to NYPD a masseuse arrived at Ledger’s apartment and was let in by a housekeeper. When Ledger didn’t answer his bedroom door, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened it and found him unconscious. They attempted to wake him; when they couldn’t, they called 911. (source)
Head to Zed’s Dead for the full write-up.
Over on sister-site Zed’s Dead (movie reviews. no anal rape) there’s a write up with thoughts on the Ledger vs. Nicholson Joker debate. Of which I wasn’t really aware there was one.
My thoughts are kind of simple. Tim Burton created a Batman that had a bit of camp left in it — a holdover from the Adam West TV show, if you will — and Jack Nicholson portrayed that Joker with panache and flair. There was a lot of camp present in the series, although the second movie was way more guilty of it than the original.
Christopher Nolan’s Batman is darker — more of The Dark Knight Returns than POW! BIFF! BAM! – and plays more of the psychological fears of Gotham and the hero (I submit that Bruce Wayne is not the “secret identity,” but just a mask that Batman wears in order to gather information for his “true” identity — vis a vis, the Bat.)
Nolan is on record saying that Dark Knight is taking its influences from the darker sides of the Batman mythos — with special emphasis on the Joker from The Killing Joke. Heath Ledger is playing that Joker to a “T” in the trailer. Insane, yes. Psychopathic, yes. Perhaps a bit over-the-top, but not a criminal that is going to pump the place with laughing gas while he marches in to the soothing sounds of Prince.
