Heath Ledger found dead today

[Fisher's Mom]

The story broke here before 7am today (Perth time) and supposedly, his father found out by the radio. They said he had been sick with pneumonia and that he had not been sleeping well due to the heavy schedule of filming for his Joker role, something like one to two hours a night. It was also said that he would fly home to NY every few days to see his daughter. He was here in Perth for Christmas and was pretty much ignored - which is what he likes. He even phoned up our daily newspaper to thank them for leaving him alone during his holiday. Which was nice.

His dad came out and read a prepared statement with either his wife or ex-wife and his daughter by his side. Very dignified, especially as he did this after only four hours of the news being public.

TV and radio has been dominated by the death of (now) Perth's favourite son. I expect in the next few days there will be interviews with his friends. We have already had his former headmaster, and the casting agent who discovered him.

Most people here seem to believe that it was an accident with the sleeping tablets along with the relaxants. Very sad however it happened.

Penny, this must be especially sad for Australians to lose one of their own. And I can't even imagine as parent finding out this horrible, shocking news on the radio. My heart goes out to them.

I surely hope it was accidental, too. Actually, I think one of the reasons everyone was so shocked was because he wasn't one of the young actors you saw on the news every other day getting arrested for DUI or smashing up hotel rooms or beating up photographers or generally acting the fool.

 

[redkitty]

Excellent article about our dear Heath...

'It's not fair. It's not right' | Features | Guardian Unlimited Film

 

[jpmcgrew]

He was also in this movie which I loved called The Four Feathers you can also check out all the other stuff he has done here.
Harry Faversham (Character)

 

[Bilby]

Penny, this must be especially sad for Australians to lose one of their own. And I can't even imagine as parent finding out this horrible, shocking news on the radio. My heart goes out to them.

I surely hope it was accidental, too. Actually, I think one of the reasons everyone was so shocked was because he wasn't one of the young actors you saw on the news every other day getting arrested for DUI or smashing up hotel rooms or beating up photographers or generally acting the fool.

Terry, I don't know what it's like on the East coast. To them it may be just a story but the Ledgers as a family have been part of Perth for I think over a hundred years. Heath's grandfather ran a engineering company with foundry and hundreds of people have worked for one Ledger or another. I also worked for Ledger Engineering but never met any of them. Kim Ledger, Heath's father, is a race car driver and was involved with a revolutionary engine I believe several years ago. His sister is in the media here. So the ripple effect is great here. You know that Kevin Bacon game with the six degrees of separation? Well the Ledgers are a bit like that in Perth - everyone knows someone that is somehow connected with them. Heath's death is felt personally by many in Perth and entirely irrespective of his career.

 

[Barbara L]

Terry, I don't know what it's like on the East coast. To them it may be just a story but the Ledgers as a family have been part of Perth for I think over a hundred years. Heath's grandfather ran a engineering company with foundry and hundreds of people have worked for one Ledger or another. I also worked for Ledger Engineering but never met any of them. Kim Ledger, Heath's father, is a race car driver and was involved with a revolutionary engine I believe several years ago. His sister is in the media here. So the ripple effect is great here. You know that Kevin Bacon game with the six degrees of separation? Well the Ledgers are a bit like that in Perth - everyone knows someone that is somehow connected with them. Heath's death is felt personally by many in Perth and entirely irrespective of his career.

Thank you for sharing this. Sometimes it is too easy to see celebrities strictly in the light of that celebrity and to forget that they are people, with real families and a real history.

Barbara

 

[Cath4420]

Yes it shocked us...

All here on the East Coast as well. I was heading down to Sydney for business on the morning it broke. Everyone could not believe it. As it was said, he was not one of the young actors that was known for excessiveness and really liked his privacy. We feel so sorry for Michelle and Matilda, and deeply sorry for his family, what a way to find out. He was outstanding in Brokeback Mountain and DH and I loved Brothers Grimm as well. He also did a great Aussie movie about one of our bushrangers, Ned Kelly, and was great in that as well. Bilby, I did not know that about his family. My husband and I know Chad Reed, the aussie motorbike supercross rider, and his family personally and as has been said sometimes people forget that these celebrities have a different part of their lives that others don't know about.

 

[Bilby]

Because the Ledger family are respected in Perth for various reasons, the local media seems to have been leaving them relatively alone - which I think is nice. One of his uncles phoned up the radio station that I listen to and confirmed that the family only heard the news via the radio news bulletin. That is tragic. Should never have happened that way.

The same station interviewed some woman who represented a church group in America that wants to protest at any memorial or funeral held for Heath Ledger. Not only did this upset the family (who also got some girl from halfway around the world phoning them to say now that Heath was dead, she was going to kill herself), but half of Perth was on the phone in protest at this woman's attitude. It is quite amazing what comes out of the woodwork when someone dies.

[On a complete side note - if you see any images of where Heath used to go to school, that is about 10 mins from my house. Just in case anyone is interested in what my neighbourhood looks like. Just on the border of the wine country.]

 

[Fisher's Mom]

The same station interviewed some woman who represented a church group in America that wants to protest at any memorial or funeral held for Heath Ledger. Not only did this upset the family (who also got some girl from halfway around the world phoning them to say now that Heath was dead, she was going to kill herself), but half of Perth was on the phone in protest at this woman's attitude. It is quite amazing what comes out of the woodwork when someone dies.

One of my sons told me about this and I was just disgusted. First of all, this woman is part of a group who's mission is to harass anyone they deem to be promoting the "gay agenda". How that relates to Heath Ledger is beyond me - he's an actor who played a character who was gay! But to actually threaten to protest anyone's funeral is just crude and disgusting. We are loathe to limit "freedom of speech" in the US, though, so unfortunately this sort of hate and fear mongering is something we deal with. I don't know what the answer is but I'm so sad that a family who is grieving a great loss has to contend with this sort of garbage.

 

[redkitty]

This is a wonderful tribute to Heath written by Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman, The Dark Knight.

Charisma as Natural as Gravity | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com

Those crackpots who are spewing filth about protesting his funeral are just that, a bunch of crackpots. Luckily no one pays much attention to them.

 

[Bilby]

Nice bit of writing.