Dead at 28. Heath Ledger.
IN THE COMMENTS: Pogo writes:
My 15 year old son was quite shaken by this. He loves the movies. We both liked him in the ones already mentioned.Here's the video. I knew right away what you were talking about because I was looking for a clip to include with the original post. After watching it, I decided it wasn't the tone I was looking for.
But he was mostly waiting to see him in Batman, feverishly following all the viral teasers the studio has thrown out over the internet....
I don't know what happened to Ledger; we'll hear soon enough. My son had seen a recent interview that suggested something wasn't quite right with Mr. Ledger, all jittery and picking at his arms....
Posts
79 comments:
"So it goes"
-Kurt Vonnegut
That's a damned shame. I really liked him in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale". And no, I'm not being sarcastic; those were good movies.
I liked "A Knight's Tale" too, Rev. Apparently, we were the only two.
I never heard of him.
John of FKI's John and Ken says he's had it with crazy celebrity stories.
Maybe the media will move on soon.
Rest in Peace. May your family and friends find comfort.
I met him a couple of times in Bouerm Hill when he was living with Michelle Williams and their kid. He seemed like a down to earth guy for a movie star. I fact I didn't even know who he was. He was hanging out with a friend of mine who lived on his block. He was big in the movement against Ratner and the new Nets Stadium. I think it all fell apart for him when he left his girl and moved out of Brooklyn. You never know what's going on in someone’s head when you are talking to them. I wish he would have reached out to someone for help. He seemed really normal for such a big shot. Go figure.
Make that three people who like "A Knights Tale". My fav of his will always be "10 Things"
Rest in peace Heath. I hope you found what you were looking for.
Too bad for the kid. Ugh.
His performance in Brokeback was stunning. Arguably the best actor of his generation. Such a loss.
Alas.
I first saw him in Roar, and loved the show and was hoping he would make it big. In fact just watched the whole series of Roar a few months ago through Netflix.
Seems like he had a lot of downturns, but the new Batman and other stuff made it look like he would really find continued success.
Very sad. Makes me wish there was someone who could have just really got it in his head that if he pushed past a little longer he would be fine.
I, too, loved him as William in "A Knight's Tale" and also as the son to Mel Gibson in "The Patriot." R.I.P.
He was phenomenal in Lords of Dogtown and Brokeback Mountain. The end of an incredible talent--a real loss to the art of film.
I was hoping you would post about this. He is definitely one of the best actors of our time. I agree with Freeman Hunt - Brokeback Mountain and Lords of Dogtown were just phenomenal performances from him. Even more than the loss to the world of film though, is the loss to his little girl. Absolutely tragic.
I agree with those quotes about Brokeback Mountain. I've always thought that was one of the best acting performances I've seen. Just watching the trailer for The Dark Knight, that looks like it could be as impressive, though it's hard to watch him play a psychotic knowing that he would die soon afterwards:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thedarkknight/hd/
I stumbled into the death frenzy out front of his apartment building today and didn't know what was happening. It was a nasty scene, reporters shoving each other, scores of television trucks, dozens of curious onlookers, lots of annoyed people trying to get down Broome Street to the Holland Tunnel. I couldn't figure out what was happening so I checked NY1 on my iPhone and voila! Heath Ledger Found Dead. It was doubly strange since I used to live directly across the street from Mr Ledger's building...
These occurrences put me in mind of the purported last words of Louis XIV of France "Why do you weep. Did you think I was immortal?"
Rev, I agree with you completely.
Original Mike, that makes 7 now (adding me and my family)
Palladian, thanks for the pictures.
Heartbreaking.
I'm not much of a movie person but I loved Ledger in "A Knight's Tale" also. It's one of the few DVDs I own.
I first fell in love with him in A Knight's Tale, one of my comfort movies.
His death is a loss to us all.
BTW, this was already up on his wikepedia page by 5 p.m. EST. I'm increasingly impressed by wikepedia, and, yes, I know to verify before using the info.
I wonder how this date in history will be remembered.
Academy Award Nominees
World Wide Stock Market Jitters
Fed cuts 3/4
Fred Thompson Quits the Presidential Race
Heath Ledger, 28, Found Dead in his apartment
And it's still before 6 pm out here in California . . .
I liked A Knight's A Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You but I really came to respect his acting in Lords of Dogtown and fell in love with him in Brokeback Mountain.
I liked him in*...
(Although, I did like the movies too, but I'm a girl at the right age so that's not really surprising...)
If this is cold hearted of me so be it. The guy had everything. How many actors make it to his level? One in a thousand? One in ten thousand? He had looks. He had had love in his life and could have had it again. He had a daughter to consider. And he offed himself. No sympathy. No sympathy whatsoever.
Yah, that's way cold ricpic. Having blessings doesn't pre-empt problems. Besides, at the very least you can have sympathy for his two year old.
This is very sad. I actually cried today after hearing this news.
I liked him quite a bit. I liked the characters he played in movies and I also liked the fact that he seemed to keep a low profile and wasn't your typical young Hollywood messes.
He was absolutely amazing in Brokeback Mountain. I loved his wife in it too and I liked seeing the pictures of them on the streets of Brooklyn with their baby.
It is really very very sad.
Revenant, I'm another that agrees on both those films. Christy, I had to smile when you called "Knight's Tale" a comfort movie, that's the way I think about it.
This is so very sad. I hope he can find some peace, and that his daughter isn't warped for life by his loss.
Jennifer, did it ever occur to you what he's just done to his daughter?
Bummer!
Haven't seen anything but Knights Tale, and I saw that in pieces like, five times.
The princess in a different Givenchy in each scene, Chaucer made accessible by brilliant acting and writing and by being called Jeffery and by appearing naked, the chick carbonizing steel and knocking, can you forget the name Thatcher? on his butt to test it, and the soundtrack. I totally lurved it.
We Will Rock You - Queen Listen Listen
2. Low Rider - War Listen Listen
3. Takin' Care Of Business - Bachman-Turner Overdrive Listen Listen
4. Golden Years - David Bowie Listen Listen
5. Crazy On You - Heart Listen Listen
6. Further On Up The Road - Eric Clapton Listen
7. Get Ready - Rare Earth Listen
8. I Want To Take you Higher - Sly & The Family Stone Listen
9. The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy Listen
10. One Of Your Own - Carter Burwell Listen
11. We Are The Champions - Robbie Williams & Queen Listen
12. Pieces - Dan Powell Listen
13. Eye Conqueror - Third Eye Blind
all those listens come from Amazon.
ricpic, it has not been determined whether his death was a suicide yet.
I have three hypotheses:
1. He so immersed himself in the role of the Joker that he felt compelled to eliminate the evil.
2. He grew sick of living in Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment.
3. He promised himself that if one more pedestrian randomly called out "Hey, look! It's the gay cowboy!" he would off himself.
Yes, ricpic. That doesn't lessen the tragedy, in my view.
Of course, ricpic, that's assuming he's either ODed or committed suicide. TMZ is reporting that he had pneumonia, and if that's true and he simply took a sleeping pill (he's been known to have issues with sleeping), perhaps he did nothing untoward at all.
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
That was for ricpic. Or if you prefer:
He freely gave to charity
He had the common touch
And they were grateful for his patronage
And they thanked him very much
So my mind was filled with wonder
When the evening headlines read
"Richard Corey Went Home Last Night
And Put A Bullet Through His Head"
Knight's Tale was a fun romp.
Ledger managed to have a star quality without seeming standoffish (on screen). 'tis a shame, whatever the causes.
What a damn shame, and a waste. He had huge talent and a tremendous future ahead of him.
Maybe Ann will finally watch Brokeback now.
Yeah sure, they all got some talent to get that high up the ladder and he had money and instant access to top-notch, professional mental health care but he went out alone, most likely emptying his bowels all over himself - what a final curtain call, the last scene of Brokenbrain - I believe he went the OD route but on this day, many others will go out too in circumstances much more tragic and with no help available for them. I for one will not honor the absurd and glorify what could have been when cowardice and selfishness ruled the day.
I'll go ahead and put my two cents in here but what irks me about these celebrities is thier seeming inability to deal with life. The 99% of the rest of the world struggles daily with sickness, death, mortgages, raising a family without the benefits of a nanny or entourage and the vast majority cope.
Then you seem to have the Hollywood set with financial security most will never have, a 'job' that requires artistic talent and not much else yet they can't seem to keep thier nose out of a bottle or a line of coke.
Get laid off, have a sick kid with no insurance, trying to make ends meet while not losing your house and if you can keep your shit together through all that, then you're a hero.
My 15 year old son was quite shaken by this. He loves the movies. We both liked him in the ones already mentioned.
But he was mostly waiting to see him in Batman, feverishly following all the viral teasers the studio has thrown out over the internet.
When his cousin was 16, and he only 5, she died in a car wreck, just weeks before spring. It changed us all.
For the past year the news is full of death pool vultures circling around Britney and other celebs. It's a feeding frenzy, a blood lust for negative photos, and a prize for the worst images of all: the spiral and then death. And now this. I would guess he sees life as far more fragile and transient than I did when I was his age.
I don't know what happened to Ledger; we'll hear soon enough. My son had seen a recent interview that suggested something wasn't quite right with Mr. Ledger, all jittery and picking at his arms.
Terrible news for his little girl and family. Maybe we can begin our climb out of self-destruction now.
Someone said that Ann hasn't watched Brokeback?!
I'm a movie buff, and I think it is quite possibly the best movie I've ever seen. Get over the gay cowboy nonsense and watch the movie; it's worth it.
I haven't seen that and many other movies. Generally, sweeping melodramas bore me.
I happen to love sweeping melodramas. But, I don't think that I'd categorize Brokeback Mountain as one. It's a beautiful movie with very real characters and a heartwrenching (but not melodramatic) storyline. And, it's very sexy. I'd highly recommend it.
I don't think Brokeback can be described as a "sweeping melodrama".
Melodrama (from Google) -
- a genre with an opposition between good and evil, in which good prevails.
- A term applied to any literary work that relies on implausible events and sensational action for its effect. The conflicts in melodramas typically arise out of plot rather than characterization; often a virtuous individual must somehow confront and overcome a wicked oppressor.
- A dramatic genre characterized by suspense, romance, and sensation. Melodramas typically have a happy ending.
- a film or literary work marked by "good guys" vs. "bad guys," unexpected plot twists, surprise endings, action and suspense.
- A play characterized by stereotypical characters, exaggerated emotions, and simplistic conflict.
- a rigidly conventionalized genre of popular drama, theatrical rather than literary in appeal, characterized by rapid and exciting physical action, sharply contrasted and simplified characters, and colorful alternations of violence, pathos, and humor.
- plays with elaborate but oversimplified plots, flat characters, excessive sentiment, and happy endings
The characters in Brokeback are the entire point, and their struggle with their feelings/identity is a sight to see. As the article notes, "It is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn."
There are beautiful nature shots in the mountains, where a man can hunt, fish, and be rugged. Yet this is where the two fall in love. The shots of married home life are all drab, with babies crying endlessly. Yet this is what it means to be a straight, married man. The tension is incredible.
As the director said, the film is about the damage caused by repressed emotions - which is why the movie transcends the "gay cowboy" label and speaks to all of us. It's not a melodrama about gay rights; it's a lesson about how denying your true feelings because society tells you to do so is damaging.
So I recommend it again.
Who knows what inner demons terrorize us (assuming his death was suicide). And if not, also a shame. RIP.
The shots of married home life are all drab, with babies crying endlessly. Yet this is what it means to be a straight, married man.
Um, no it isn't. Maybe for self absorbed types it is.
The Imus crew isn't any more shaken than the John and Ken crew.
audio
It's another celebrity story, is all; and those get mocked to mock the audience for them.
I was only barely aware of this guys existence. And now thanks to his death he will be enshrined in Hollywood as one of histories greatest actors. I feel bad that someone so young had to die, but for purely selfish reasons, I wish he hadn't.
The shots of married home life are all drab, with babies crying endlessly. Yet this is what it means to be a straight, married man.
Um, no it isn't. Maybe for self absorbed types it is.
In the movie, it is. And it's not ridiculous either. It's easy to resent your life when it wasn't your first choice.
In the movie, it is. And it's not ridiculous either. It's easy to resent your life when it wasn't your first choice.
I'm sure it is. Raising a family versus playing hide the salami with your boyfriend on the open range certainly does seem drab in comparison.
I didn't see the movie but my wife did and said all it was was a remake of that Alan Alda movie Same Time Next Year except this was the gay version.
You didn't see the movie, but your certain you can speak with authority on it, Hoosier Daddy?
And while I'm at it...what irks me about these celebrities is thier seeming inability to deal with life
Sneering at someone for not dealing with their inner demons as well as you deal with the ones you don't have seems rather like sneering at a paralyzed person for not being able to make it up the stairs that you can take with your two working legs.
you're*
You didn't see the movie, but your certain you can speak with authority on it, Hoosier Daddy?
I was speaking to a certain comment made by Titan, not on the movie itself. So no, I'm not an authority nor claimed to be one.
Sneering at someone for not dealing with their inner demons as well as you deal with the ones you don't have seems rather like sneering at a paralyzed person for not being able to make it up the stairs that you can take with your two working legs.
Not even close sweetheart. And what makes you think I don't have demons? We all have problems some more than others. Like I said, try getting laid off sometime after 10 years of loyal work, money runs out, got a kid, need to pay the mortgage, bills start piling up, savings kaput. Yeah, life was a real bitch at one time but you suck it up and make do.
Then again had I gone the Lohan/Spears route my family would have still been screwed and I wouldn't be on the cover of People.
Money can't by happiness but it certainly can make hard times easier to cope with.
I think that many of the people who go into the acting and perfomance art professions are damaged personalities to begin with. The stress of dealing with fame, sudden wealth and the relentless pressure of the howling media is enough to drive even the most sane and centered personality off kilter.
Except for Kinght's Tale which I liked, I haven't seen any of the movies that this guy was in. /shrug
And what makes you think I don't have demons?
The fact that you seem to think that whether or not someone cleans your toilet for you and what stores you can afford to shop at are the difference between major mental issues and mental health.
You're right, everybody has problems but only some of them have anything to do with money at all. Plenty of celebrities deal just fine and a few seem to suffer serious issues just like most regular folk deal just fine and a few seem to suffer issues.
Money can make the hard times easier only when the "hard times" have anything to do with money. I'm sure you wouldn't make the argument that his daughter won't suffer any from the loss of her father because she has access to money.
Regardless, we still don't have any idea what he died of. The reports of "scattered pills" etc, have already been corrected and retracted.
The fact that you seem to think that whether or not someone cleans your toilet for you and what stores you can afford to shop at are the difference between major mental issues and mental health.
Well I simply don't buy the psychobabble crap that destructive behavior = mental illness. Sorry but it seems to much like a standard cop out anymore. Kind of like running off to rehab cause you called someone a ni***er or Jew bastard who cause all the wars.
Money can make the hard times easier only when the "hard times" have anything to do with money.
Think so? Think of some poor schlub wuith a paraplegic kid making $40K a year versus say, having a few million in the bank. The former's life is going to be a tad harder caring for that kid on a fixed meager income than say a multi-millionaire.
I'm sure you wouldn't make the argument that his daughter won't suffer any from the loss of her father because she has access to money.
Don't see anywhere where I even implied such a thing. In fact, the daughter is the real tragedy. I think most kids look up to mom and dad as a source of strength and security so if his death was due to being an addict that was rather selfish.
Regardless, we still don't have any idea what he died of. The reports of "scattered pills" etc, have already been corrected and retracted.
Quite and I may have rushed to judgment as well although it seems rare anymore when one of the celebrity jet set dies from natural causes.
Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on a lot of points.
Sure, the day to day existence would be less stressfull, but I don't think a parent's heart would be any less broken over a suffering, paraplegic child simply because they could afford better care.
And I do want to say that I didn't mean to imply you said anything heartless about his daughter. It was just an example of money not erasing suffering.
And, it isn't outside of the realm of possibility that he caused his own death - not even unlikely. But, until the full autopsy report, I'm holding out hope for his daughter's sake that this was nothing more than a bad combination of pneumonia and OTC sleeping pills.
It was just an example of money not erasing suffering.
I never meant it to mean it erases suffering but it certainly makes it easier to cope. One may have to endure the suffering of caring for a very sick or disabled son or daughter but wealth certainly takes out a large segment of the stress that goes with paying for such care. As I said originally, money can't buy happiness, it just things easier to cope with.
I'm holding out hope for his daughter's sake that this was nothing more than a bad combination of pneumonia and OTC sleeping pills.
Ditto
"There are beautiful nature shots in the mountains, where a man can hunt, fish, and be rugged. Yet this is where the two fall in love. The shots of married home life are all drab, with babies crying endlessly. Yet this is what it means to be a straight, married man. The tension is incredible."
This is love story cliché. Of course the passionate lovers are out in some big landscape and the spouse they cheat on is somewhere stifling. So there's a gimmick ... like they're gay or whatever .... it's the same old story. Can't I just stay home and watch "Wuthering Heights" on TV?
From Slate:
But then there's Brokeback Mountain, a movie in which Ledger belongs so completely that, in the end, the movie belongs to him. That's not to discount Jake Gyllenhaal's fine performance as the volatile, openly needy Jack Twist. But it's the recalcitrance of Ennis Del Mar, Ledger's more deeply closeted cowboy, that drives the story forward. Brokeback Mountain isn't just about the impossibility of two men loving each other; it's about the impossibility of anyone loving this particular man. Not only Jack Twist, but Ennis' wife (Michelle Williams, who fell in love with Ledger during the filming) and a dime-a-dance bar girl (Linda Cardellini) all hack away unsuccessfully at Ennis' shell. I remember, when Brokeback came out, two friends telling me separately that the flinty, secretly tender, intermittently rageful Ennis reminded them painfully of their own shut-down fathers. An impressive achievement for an actor who was 26 at the time.
You don't have to watch anything you don't want to, but I would rather watch this than Wuthering Heights.
The problem with movie romance is the same one that besets people with religious conversion or those starting a new job or moving to a new city.
First the ecstasy, then the laundry.
Maturity, and no small part of modern heroism, is found in those attending to the laundry. The saints are those who turn the laundry into ecstacy.
Titan, have you seen "Wuthering Heights"? (I mean the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.) What on earth do you think there is in that turgid Slate writing that demonstrates the "Brokeback Mountain" is a better movie or a better story than "Wuthering Heights"?
I've seen parts of "Brokeback Mountain" on TV and I've read the short story, so I think I know what I'm talking about.
This is love story cliché. Of course the passionate lovers are out in some big landscape and the spouse they cheat on is somewhere stifling. So there's a gimmick ... like they're gay or whatever .... it's the same old story.
It has been pointed out that women probably wouldn't think "The Bridges of Madison County" was a very romantic film if you reversed the genders and turned it into a film about a husband sleeping with a beautiful lady journalist while his loyal and hard-working wife was out of town with the kids.
Of course, if you reversed the genders in "Brokeback Mountain" and made it a film about a couple of hot lesbians having sex amid beautiful mountain scenery, men would probably think it was the greatest thing since "The Dirty Dozen".
"Of course the passionate lovers are out in some big landscape and the spouse they cheat on is somewhere stifling. So there's a gimmick ... like they're gay"
No, Ann, this misrepresents what "Brokeback Mountain" is about. It's not just "Wuthering Heights" with guys.
Ennis Del Mar is no stock adulterer, as you suggest. Unlike the usual straying husband, Ennis has no conceptual framework for his attraction to Jack. Ennis doesn't understand "gayness" or view himself as gay.(or, as Proulx puts it, "one of those people you see around sometimes.") In Ennis' daily life there is no room where his love for Jack can happen. Hence the mountain landscape, however breathtaking, is not merely decorative. It creates a space where Ennis is enabled.
You can watch any number of tragic film romances without seeing anything quite like the way Ledger makes Ennis come alive.
tjl: Again, I don't think you are familiar with "Wuthering Heights." Does Cathy have a "framework" for understanding her attraction to Heathcliff?
Ann, Cathy may not understand the strength of her attraction to Heathcliff, but the attraction itself is not something alien to her sense of who she is. That is, Cathy can indulge her passion without having to redefine who Cathy is and what she is allowed to feel.
I hate identity politics. But it may be that only someone who has gone through a difficult process of coming out, of accepting gayness as part of one's own identity, can feel how much Ennis suffers because he never finds this acceptance in himself. And only someone who has gone through this process can appreciate how miraculously Ledger was able to capture Ennis' pain without having felt it in his own life.
tjl: No, you are wrong about "Wuthering Heights." You are either incredibly unobservant or unfamiliar with it.
Ann, I agree with you wholeheartedly on Wuthering Heights. I just watched it again last month for another project I was involved in.
tjl, Cathy is completely flummmoxed by her attraction to Heathcliff. That's the whole point of the movie--the only way she can love him is as a scepter, lost in the unearthly realm of the moors, a ghost of her real self.
Ledger was able to capture Ennis' pain without having felt it in his own life.
Of course, it's an open question as to whether Ledger felt pain which others are unable to capture. Or is it?
"Open question" and "or is it" applies, btw, to "others."
That's how the sentence is constructed, and it shouldn't require explanation, but given some of the lack of imagination (empathy in action) exhibited here, one never knows.
Ick.
I read and saw W H years ago and remember it as sillier and more tedious than Jane Eyre, but I couldn't identify with Cathy or moon over Heathcliff (Olivier was too pretty for the role). However, I can cross my legs and loop the upper ankle behind the lower calf.
Were Heathcliff and the moor supposed to represent her repressed sexuality?
OK, Ann, you've detected that I've neither seen the movie nor read anything by any of the Brontes.
But - Cathy may indeed be flummoxed as she wanders ghostlike through the unearthly moors. Nevertheless, her romantic feelings differ in degree, but not in kind, from what she might have expected.
tjl, you've admitted you don't know what you're talking about, yet you keep talking! The fact is that Heathcliff is portrayed as a different species of being and not a normal man.
Cathy: He seems to take pleasure in being mean and brutal. And yet, he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. And Linton's is as different as frost from fire... Ellen, I AM Heathcliff.
[thunderbolt]
Cathy: Everything he's suffered, I've suffered. The little happiness he's ever known, I've had too. Oh, Ellen, if everything in the world died and Heathcliff remained, life would still be full for me.
Pogo, great comment re. ecstasy and the laundry. Somewhere upstairs there's a book about zen and housework. Maybe I should dust it off.
I've never seen or read Wuthering Heights, so perhaps that explains why Brokeback Mountain felt like a very special movie to me. Or perhaps it's because Heath Ledger was and Jake Gyllenhaal is so very hot. Or maybe it's just that I really love Wyoming. Whatever the case, it's one of my favorite movies and I recommend it to all.
And, I would add that both men put forward such incredible portrayals of their characters, that I think it's worth watching regardless of whether the story seems tired to you. Of course, I freely admit to being a movie rewatcher. And to not being bored particularly easily.
Post a Comment