www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/movies/23ledger.html
Enlarge This Image Annie Tritt for The New York Times As word of the death spread, a crowd had gathered outside the apartment in SoHo in time to see Mr Ledger's body removed.
More Photos The police said Mr Ledger, 28, was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. The chief police spokesman, Paul J Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play. "There was no indication of a disturbance," he said, adding that there were no signs that Mr Ledger had been drinking. Nor were any illegal drugs found in the loft, which takes up the entire fourth floor. Neighbors said Mr Ledger had occupied it for several months. Police officials said that a bottle of prescription sleeping pills was found on a nearby night table, but that they did not know whether the pills had anything to do with Mr Ledger's death. Officers who checked the apartment found other prescription medications in the bathroom. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday. Mr Browne said no obvious indication of suicide, like a note, was found in the bedroom.
Michelle Williams, who played his wife in "Brokeback Mountain." There were reports of hand-holding and lip-locking with various actresses and models, and sightings at restaurants and cocktail bars. He had clashed with paparazzi in Australia, but in New York, where there is no shortage of problem-causing partygoers, "he certainly wasn't one of them," said Paul Sevigny, an owner of the Beatrice Inn, a West Village club that Mr Ledger frequented. The police said Mr Ledger's body was found after a masseuse arrived at the apartment at 2:45 pm for her regular appointment with Mr Ledger. A housekeeper let her in and knocked on the door of Mr Ledger's bedroom. The housekeeper and the masseuse pushed open the bedroom door and saw Mr Ledger, unconscious, on the floor. They shook him but could not revive him, and then called for help, the police said. The housekeeper told officers that she had heard him snoring in the bedroom around 12:30 pm, the police said. As word of Mr Ledger's death began circulating, fans and camera crews converged on the street outside the apartment, at 421 Broome Street, between Crosby and Lafayette. Julie McIntosh, a hairstylist at a salon a few doors down the block from the apartment, said she saw him on the street once or twice a week. She said she had seen him with his 2-year-old daughter a couple of times. "He seemed happy," she said, recalling how she had run into him outside the salon last month and joked, "When are you going to come in and let me wash your hair?" Others in the crowd said their first reaction to word of his death was disbelief.
New York University, was in a seminar about Jesus when someone sent her a message about Mr Ledger. She checked the Web, then walked to the apartment "because of the way our generation is; Vanessa Yuille, 29, a record-company manager who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said her vigil outside the apartment building was a way of paying tribute to what Mr Ledger did the night she saw him in a Williamsburg restaurant last summer. "A guy fell off a motorcycle in front of the restaurant," she said, "and it was Heath Ledger who went to see if the guy was all right." More recently, Mr Ledger had made the rounds in Manhattan. A cocktail waitress at a downtown hotel bar that regularly draws celebrities said he showed up one night last week with some friends, ordered bottled water, as he always did, and stayed for an hour or two. "He looked fit," said the waitress, who would give her name only as Renee for fear of jeopardizing her job. The Associated Press reported that his father, Kim Ledger, called his death "tragic, untimely and accidental." An uncle, Neil Bell, said the family was taken by surprise.
Terry Gilliam movie," he said, referring to "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," scheduled for release next year. Mr Bell, whom Mr Ledger once cited as the inspiration for his character in "Brokeback Mountain," added: "They were all flying to Vancouver for a shoot on this movie. Mr Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said that she was too upset to talk about Mr Ledger's death.
"Clowning Around" and the television series "Ship to Shore." But the magazine Current Biography said he was also a champion at chess and go-kart racing as a youngster, and played field hockey until his coach forced him to choose between that sport and drama. After appearing in a short-lived Australian television series, he moved to Los Angeles in 1999.
Next Page Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Anne Barnard, Brooks Barnes, David Carr, Sewell Chan, John Eligon, David S Hirschman, Thomas J Lueck, Angela Macropoulos, Jennifer Mascia, Colin Moynihan, Campbell Robertson, Melena Ryzik and Paula Schwartz.
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