Diphenhydramine potentiates opiates. If he was on any sort of pain medication, or a legal or illegal opiate/opioid, it could easily have caused respiratory failure. Now that they're saying one to the Olsen twins owned the apartment, coke comes to mind. If he was on coke and took something to help him sleep or come down from the high, he may have taken way too much and gone into respiratory arrest when the coke wore off and the DipH didn't.
Like I've said to my friends, if I die doing something stupid, I hope they remember me as a fucking idiot. I never understood emotional attachments to celebrities, and all I feel is that it's unfortunate that someone I never met either chose to kill himself or make a poor decision with medication and/or recreational drugs.
Doesn't the Joker die in this one?

Just to resolve the question, The Dark Knight is in post-production, which means that main photography is over. That doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't want him in front of the camera again--it's quite common to shoot pick-up shots during post. But that obviously won't be an option now. Hopefully they can get a stand-in who does a passable job for any further shots they need. I guess with the makeup, that shouldn't be so hard.

I don't know. please don't ruin the story for everyone else. I haven't seen any synopsis or anything regarding the storyline of the movie. I hope he doesn't die. The Joker is a great batman character.

Definitely surprising, completely out-of-nowhere news. Just goes to show you that we can never really "know" celebrities.

Didn't really think that he would outlast Britney Spears on the death pool, either...

Spoiler: The original copy of the screenplay I've got doesn't include a death. So no. But now? Who knows.

Dammit.

I liked watching him in movies. Whether an accident or not, he's dead now. How he died makes no difference. Rest in Peace, Mr. Ledger.

Jokes are in bad taste. However, this is more surprising than sad to me, espcially if it was (as it seems) suicide or accidental OD. I add my voice to the throng of 'hope they were done with filming'

I save my sympathy for people like these, who also died this week.

Spc. Richard B. Burress, age 25: Killed in an IED attack in Arab Jabour Jan. 19
Unidentified pending notification of next-of-kin, age 19: Killed January 19 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province
Staff Sgt. Justin R. Whiting, age 27: Died Jan. 19 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an IED
Spc. Jon M. Schoolcraft, III, age 26: Died Jan. 19 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an IED

Not for movie stars who died of drug overdoses.

/not trying to start a threadjack. if a mod feels like this dose of reality is over the line, feel free to delete.

It may sound fucked up, but some of us have to die so that others of us can live. I'm sure you know that.

I was relieved to know with some certainty that The Dark Knight is in post-production. However....Ledger was cast to play in an upcoming Terry Gilliam film. I think that one started filming in December. I hope they can salvage it. ...especially since Tom Waits plays the devil in it.

I was shocked about his death too. I've felt for a long time that he was going somewhere, and he actually was. I'll withhold further comments until I know more about what happened to him.

I was playing Call of Duty 4 when I heard someone say that he was dead. I had to check after the game and wow totally unexpected. RIP.

I heard someone mention it with no context. It's just a rumor I heard, nothing substantiated.

I'm not sure what a celebrity overdosing has to do with population control.

Or is it teaching the lesson "don't commit suicide"? :confused:

That sucks big time. Most celebrity deaths don't usually shock me but damn, pretty sad.

I think he means that a public celebrity overdose can remind drug abusers what exactly is at stake in their own lives.

Well, I had an aunt who was a drug addict all of her life, tried to commit suicide several times and finally succeeded in 2004. Knowing that she was a fucked-up drug addict didn't make her death any easier for all of us to deal with.

Sorry mate. I was a bit insensitive with my previous comment.

Now this is pathetic!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...mori/heath.jpg

Hopefully Heath will be buried in Australia, so his family and friends can avoid the WBC picket crap.

I know it's not a great leap to assume suicide, BUT... the fat lady has not sung! Let's at least ride it out until the autopsy is made public before berating him for being an ass and killing himself. Perhaps the pills were bad. Perhaps he had a reaction to them. *shrug* Perhaps he IS an assclown who took his own life. Let's wait to find out for sure.

edit: With the above posting from Miss Mango. Man I hate those WBC fucks! Does anyone else find it ironic that the first three digits of their zip code are "666"?

WOW. I want him to do the music too--his music would go great in a Gilliam film. Hope they find somebody to replace Heath quick, I want to see this movie!

Seriously? If that's true it's funny as hell. Speaking of hell, if one does exist these WBC fucks are likely future residents.

As I understand it the film's in the can, so even though a man's dead your movie going future is safe.

I was at a dinner last night, and this was one of the topics of conversation. Someone said that they would be surprised if Westboro Babtist didn't protest given "Brokeback Mountain". Sometimes it sucks to be right.

He could have had an undiagnosed heart condition, had a stroke (my uncle had one at 28) or any other number of things including allergic reactions, etc. He could have been really jetlagged and accidentally overdosed trying to get some sleep (I know EXACTLY what that's like these days). He could have killed himself. The Coen Brothers could have put a hit on him because he wasn't in "No Blood for Old Men". He could have logged on to TFP, started reading one of my overly long posts, slipped into a coma and stopped breathing. All of those possibilities are just as likely as anything else thrown out there at this point. Once the autopsy's done and released, then we can villify him to make ourselves feel superior.

I enjoyed most of his movies, even "10 Things I Hate About You". But he was an actor that I'd never even seen in person. This is sad, especially since he had a little one, but it has no impact on my life.

Well, let's not waste any time determining a cause of death and meting out the appropriate level of internet forum scorn then.

edit: not you Jazz

I agree it is extreme and over the top and I find it disrespectful. But some people feel that due to their religious belief and they are entitled to their belief. I personally do not try to push on to others my religious belief and feel if anyone did something wrong that is for G-d to figure out.

What is this "even '10 Things I Hate About You'" crap? That movie is a cinematic masterpiece! A tour de force that will be remembered fondly for many long years.

in interviews he had said towards the end of his Joker role he was so into the role he had started to get no sleep so he was taking 2-3 Ambien a night and still getting at most 3 hours of sleep. Pills were not strewn about his room as some reports are saying, but prescription and over the counter sleeping pills were found in his room. He was probably still having trouble sleeping and when the 2 or 3 Ambien didn't work, he took a few more and he, sadly, died. That's just my thought though


Also

Yeah, pretty much - presuming this was an overdose, I don't have too much sympathy for a multi-millionaire with everything in the world going for him, although I do feel sympathy for his family.

How many sleeping pills do you have to take before you question just what the heck you're doing?

If it was something else, like an undiagnosed medical condition, I can switch the sympathy switch back on.

Yes, I agree that Julia Stiles is unnecessarily hot in that movie.

I hope not. That was my only problem with the original Batman was that he had no problem killing the joker. Batman doesn't kill. He used all sorts of dirty tricks to strike fear in those he was fighting, but he had that line that he never crossed, and that's what separated him from the bad guys.

And back on subject: bummer, I really liked a bunch of his movies and was really excited about his version of the Joker. My girlfriend and I just watched him in The Brothers Grimm a couple nights ago, which made it that much creepier when we found out.

Psst.... Westbro Baptist Church... HE WASN'T GAY.

Now go back to having sex with other men....

While I'm not sure if he was taking Ambien or not (one report has him on that), I know that Ambien has caused quite a few people to do things they aren't aware of. So for instance, he could have taken 2-3, been in a semi-lucid or comatose state without realizing it, and taken a few more and his body just shut down. Some people could probably handle 5-6 Ambien.. some people can't. I guess we won't really know until the autopsy comes out.

Also, as MSD already pointed out, if he was on some sort of narcotic with an opiate base, it's quite possible that respiratory failure was the cause.

All that being said, if he did do it on purpose, he could have at least been a real movie star and overdosed on coke and heroin. geez.

Oops meant to go here http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=130581
Post

Regardless of the cause of death this is indeed sad. He showed signs of turning into a great actor someday. I immediately thought of the line from "A Knight's Tale" (copied from another website)

It appears he had some problems sleeping, perhaps that has something to do with this.

there are reports now of him having pneumonia. I don't know how reliable TMZ(ugh) is but that's what they are saying. So if he took a few Ambien with his pneumonia he might have had a bad reaction.

This sucks. I thought he was an amazing actor. Guess no one is immortal and we all have our time to go.

Life is not only sexually transmitted, it's also fatal.

Can I steal this?

It's all yours.

Even funnier that photobucket removed it due to TOS violation

You'd think that if god really hated Heath Ledger for playing a fag in a movie he'd of had him eaten alive by a pair of tigers or something...you know, rather than overdosing in a posh Soho apartment.