Heath Ledger

I know this is probably not the place for this, but my favorite actor, (besides Daniel Day-Lewis) Heath Ledger, was found dead in his apt with a lot of sleeping pills next to his bed. He was known to suffer from depression. I just think it's so sad that depression can bring down anybody, whether you have looks, talent, fame, money, whatever. It's soooo important to fight this disease with all you've got.

[jdwithhcv]

That's so sad.  

[Lady Lauri]

  I was just watching that! How sad is that? 28 :{
If it does turn out to be suicide (thus far looking that way?) it's awful. Of course it's always a tragedy to loose anyone to depression, no matter what status, back ground,  age, etc. it sure shows us that depression IS a 'disease' as he 'he had it all' and hard to imagine why he'd be depressed. Awful to lose anyone so young for any reason, but thru drugs or depression......could have been 'helped', caught, stopped :{
  I liked him too :{  

[kittyface]

I'm so sad about this too -- the news reported that he had split up with the mother of his young daughter so maybe that was the catalyst.

Only 28 years old!  What a waste.

KF

[merlino]

Its is so very sad!! He was a favorite of mine too.

[irishrayne]

We loved him in "The Patriot". Thusly, our youngest son was named after his character, Gabriel. Such a tragic loss. Young, handsome, at the top of his game, and a daughter.

Sad

[ladybug52]

I'm still amazed about his death! My daughter told me last night, what a tragic waste of a talent and beauty...
Hugs,
Bug

[orphanedhawk]

I'm visiting a friend whose son is an actor in N.Y. The Ledgers were neighbors and there is a lot of doubt about the claims that his death is drug related. Maybe the gossip mongers are mistaken? Either way, its is a tragic loss.

[lindavalu]

Here in Aussie land they are not talking suicide. Hed talked about taking tablets to help him sleep.It was sad, his family here heard about it on the news which sensationalised his death "nude and pills scattered" horrible thing to do to him and his family. If I happened to die in the night in my bed I wouldn't be wearing jarmies either but the media wouldn't bother to mention that believe me they wouldn't (o; But I guess the media is always looking for another Elvis or Marilyn Monroe eh. I hope it was just some kind of an accident and the media lay off him and his family.
Aroha Linda.

[jdwithhcv]

I agree, its appalling that the first media reaction is to go for scandalous, lurid sounding headlines, without having any facts.  They should have more respect for any human being, particularly for one who has always behaved so gracefully.  What this must do to his family is beyond imagining.  Whatever the situation turns out to have been, their disrespect and invasion of privacy fill me with disgust.

As for that group of religious whackos who have announced plans to protest at the memorial services, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO???

jd

[Forseegood]

if I reported the first thing I heard...which might of been wrong...I heard from a doc on CNN that it's very hard to know exactly what happened in cases like these, and I certainly don't want to infer anything, when no one knows for sure. I was just soooo devastated, still am. He's one of those actors that I really watched, looking forward to his every performance, I think he's so brilliant. And to know what a kind, sweet person he was too. Not a lot of brash ego that one often sees in actors. Never looking for the spotlight, just wanting to do good work.

[jdwithhcv]

Please don't think I meant you.  Here in NYC area, the local news has been teasing the story with the most ill-considered, sallacious terms, e.g. "Coming up after the break, Heath Ledger - what was strewn around the bedroom" and more in that style.  That's what pushed MY button,  not your post.

jd

[jdwithhcv]

I love Daniel Day-Lewis too!

jd

[sfbaygirl]

Okay, I know I am an old fogy but I don't know who he is?  Back in the day the prescribed narcotics for sleep, these days ambien etc. How can one overdose on these new drugs?  Perhaps they can, I don't know that much about OD on ambien, lunesta etc.  

On another point about depression. I have situational depression. have for years. When I started tx I was told I had to start one again. I am glad I did as the depression has killed many of our fellow heppers on tx. Those that don't like them per se can't imagine what a drug like interferon/riba can do to you. I say it is prudent to take an AD to prevent such a sad story as a preventable suicide on tx. You can always stop later, you may not get your life back.  That's my spiel and I am sticking to it. lol  Not funny but I know many here are against AD's. I just don't want to lose any of you to tx.  Hey, the AD's are nothing compared to the tx drugs!

All my best to those considering tx.....and of course my ol and new buddies.

Linda

[Forseegood]

youre a scuba diver? I tried it once...scared me too much, ha ha! made me feel paranoid for some reason, being under water like that....probably neurosis...lol....that's great though....

Girl...you don't get out much:) he's the blond cowboy in Brokeback Mountain...Casanova...I really liked him as the older surfer dude in Lords of Dogtown...I grew up in the 70s around all that mess...at the beach cutting school...

[sfbaygirl]

OHHHHHHH. him.  That's a darn shame. He was pretty dam cute.  I sure don't get out much, gotta take Vit D booster cuz' I don't. I sure need a bit of your supplement diet. Still don't understand how you can OD with ambien.  He had to be on something else. I am sure we will ALL find out.  

[jdwithhcv]

Yes, love to dive.  Took it up after cancer treatment.  It was the first proactive thing I did and the thing that made me feel like a person (not just a patient) again.  It felt sooooo good to take on a physical (but not medical) challenge.

[jmjm530]

Missed a lot of his work, but did enjoy his fun-loving character in "A knight's Tale". Such a tragedy.

The speculation surrounding his death is to be expected considering the circumstances -- young actor, multiple rx drugs found, etc -- and esp the fact that a friend (Olsen) was notified before 911. Why Olsen was called, what exactly was said during that conversation, and what the masseuse may or may not have done to sanitize the room in the intermim period will no doubt be tabloid fodder for some time. My personal take is that it seems odd that someone with the wherewithall to pick up someone else's cell phone, search for a phone number of a mutually known acquintance, and then speed dial that number -- that this same person would not have the common sense to dial "911" first, unless we're not getting the complete story.

-- Jim

[pigeonca]

There was an article in the L.A. Times yesterday that suggested that people frequently underestimate the potency of some of the non-opiate, non-barbiturate drugs that get prescribed nowadays.  I know that I, for one, have a tendency to take two when one will do, because my system usually demands a larger dose.  For example, I often take three or four aspirin or tylenol when the recommended dose is two.  

I can easily imagine somebody assuming that a med like vicodin isn't a narcotic and that it's okay to double up.  Didn't Mr. Leger have pneumonia?  That would have caused difficulty breathing to begin with, and then a smaller than fatal dose of prescribed meds might have suppressed his respiration further, and bang! He's dead.  There's a lesson in this, I think.  What a tragic loss of a great talent.

[R Glass]

It would not surprise me if his death will be ruled an accidental drug overdose caused by Ambien. The Ambein may have caused sleepwalking that resulted in taking more meds while actually being asleep. A little time will tell.

[Forseegood]

guess I'm of two minds on this, or more...on one hand, I really don't care how he died, I just know he died and that makes me sad, he really was my favorite actor and I was just looking forward to his career and all the great things he'd do to entertain and enlighten. These types of things always bring home to me how fragile life really is, and how we shouldn't take it for granted. I think in this culture, we take it for granted that we will all live long lives, and death is uncertain. But it's really the other way around, death is the only thing that is certain, and our lives are the ones that are uncertain, so enjoy it while it's here!

As far as the how's and why's...to just speculate because probably more will be revealed, I find it hard to buy that you can accidentally overdose on ambien like SFbaygirl said. Or on any sleeping pills that are out now. They don't have such a build up in your system like sleeping pills of yore, like nembutal and barbiturates. A big guy like that would have to take a lot of Ambien to overdose. And why would you take a lot of them? On the other hand, he had a hard gig. We like to think that movie stars have it really easy, and they are indulged, makes lots of money, etc etc...to be sure. But when they are working, they work hard, and their work is strange. They have to be able to deliver while working really, really long hours. The try to rest in their trailers between shots, but they never know when they will be asked to go on set on a moment's notice. They run on adrenalin a lot. So it was probably really hard for him to sleep, like he said often, he had insomnia.

Those ambien effect different people differently, maybe he just couldn't sleep the way he wanted to, and he kept taking them as he woke up, not realizing how much he was taking, and maybe he was on some other things too, and a weakened immune system, all kinds of things.

Like Rglass said, ambien can effect people strangely, in some cases. Maybe we'll never know what exactly happened. I heard a medical guy say that in some cases like these, when you have a lot of sedative in your system, a person might turn on his face while sleeping and block the breathing passages, and be too sedated to know it. We just might not ever really know what happened. I just know he's gone and it's so sad.

[l-horn]

Notice you're a DDL fan. So am I.

Have you seen 'There Will Be Blood' ?

I tell you, nothing like DDL's character in 'Gangs of NY'.

[Forseegood]

yeah, he first made my eyes pop at his performance in Last of the Mohicans...I think in There Will Be Blood he sounded a lot like John Huston...but that's kind of an old accent...my old dad kind of speaks like that, with those kinds of inflections, cadences, etc....he's just amazing....funny thing is, some people have problems working with him because he so steeped in the charecter, he likes to stay in off set...when he was making Gangs of New York, poor Leo DeCaprio and his pals would often avoid him offset (he said in interviews) because they sure didn't want to be around Bill the Butcher if they could avoid it, HA HA HA HA!!!!!!