Marky B

I have been told that his mother is a fan of Wuthering Heights,and thus named her son, Heath and daughter,Cathy - any truth in this?
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

Steve Crook

Apparently. His proper first name is Heathcliff and his sister is named Katherine (with a 'K', not a 'C' like in the book)

Steve

stevie boy

sad waste of a life, my thoughts go to his family

Wolfgang

He sought out challenging roles and you sense was committed to his job. He was convincing in his roles too, none of that drama school 'acting' you usually get in actors his age. He seemed to be following in Leonardo DiCaprio's footsteps to becoming very credible actor. Brad Renfro seemed to be of that ilk too, so it is sad news about both of them, because they did seem to be genuine emerging talents.

Mark O

R.I.P. Heath........

Mark

silverwhistle

Sad news. I haven't seen much of his work (and what I have, infuriated me for other reasons, i.e. The Patriot), but he was a talented lad, and it's dreadful for his parents, his ex, and his little girl.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor...!"

Captain Casper

Such a shame. Looks like an accidental overdose of sleeping tablets.

I enjoyed Knights Tale and The excellent Brothers Grimm and was looking forward to his "Joker" in Dark Knight. Apparently, he was lined up for Gilliams next movie too.

RIP, Heath.

christoph404

I think shooting had already started on the Gilliam film according to some reports. I guess when one looks at young succesful films stars we see a fairytale charmed life when in reality Heath Ledger was suffering severe insomnia and stress related to work and the split from his girlfriend. Known facts seem to point towards an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. A very tragic and sad end, he was a very talented young man, I would imagine his last film( as The Joker) will be dedicated to him.

DB7

Sad to see that the Westboro Baptist Church (you'll remember the protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers on Louis Theroux) is planning on forming a small protest at his funeral because of his role in Brokeback Mountain - seems you can't even rest in peace sometimes.

brucealmighty

Hello everyone!

I am a big fan of Heath Ledger and i was just so shocked to hear the news that he's already dead because of drug overdose. Well actually i really like almost all of his films most especially A Knigth's Tale, Casanova and Brokeback Mountain...and im loking forward to see his villain role in the upcoming Batman! May his soul rest in peace and for sure i will miss him!

Azanti

I am glad to see that in keeping with this site's atmosphere, people have kindly refrained from laying in with the 'well if you take drugs, thats what happens / you deserve what you get..' type of attitude. Especially as it seems that he was merely trying to get to sleep and took a bad combination. I do not believe it was intentional and from people I know who have worked with him he was not a recreational user. I have suffered from bad insomnia myself in the past, the worse case being where I simply was unable to turn of my brain for seven nights in a row straight, that's a whole seven days with no sleep at all and it was a week on sleeping pills that snapped me out of it.

His death was an awful tradedgy and I am sure anyone who has seen his collective body of work would agree that was one talented man, whose abilities were clearly growing over time as he learnt his craft, I am sure we have been robbed of many a good performance in the future. RIP Heath.

ShirlGirl

Prescription drugs cause more deaths than illegal drugs. People place all their faith in their doctors, but doctors only go by what the pharmaceutical companies tell them. And pharmaceutical companies are as greedy and as ruthless and as immoral as tobacco companies.

We are led to believe that whatever the problem is, there's a pill for it -- then there's another pill to counteract the adverse side effects of the first pill.

Prescription drugs never actually cure anything, they only mask the symptoms. Worse, their side effects kill.

If you want to be cured, you have to look at the cause. Chances are, the cause relates to diet and lifestyle and a cure will require an holistic approach.

(Obviously there are times when surgery is essential.)

orpheum

sorry dont agree with your comments about prescription drugs and i am unconvinced by the holistic approach.

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

batman

I work with people who have serious mental health issues. While we endeavour to work in an holistic way (by this I mean we look at the whole scenario of a patient's circumstances), many of our patients would not be able to function in even a basic manner without prescribed pharmaceutical medication. Their cognitive abilities are so impaired that any treatmant plan without recourse to such drugs would be pointless.

I have seen people who have had there lives blighted by serious psychotic illnesses walk away from hospital and begin worthwhile lives because of the effectiveness of their medication.

Sure the drugs only mask the symptoms, but these people would rather have the symptoms masked than suffer the horrendous effects of auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions and the negative effects such as permanent tiredness etc.

To say nobody needs pharmaceutical medication is a generalisation that has no foundation in reality. Some of your points are valid, but to say that lifestyle changes are a cure all is not really a sound argument.

I am not an advocate for dispensing drugs at the drop of a hat, I lost my daughter through the ill effects of medication, but there is a place in the world for pharmaceutical drugs and many people would live poorer lives without them.

Bats.

I wish I had claws.

Wolfgang

Oh I don't know...that dose of penicillin certainly saw off my VD