Heath Ledger Biography (1979-2008)

"I'm not good at future planning. I don't plan at all. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I don't have a day planner and I don't have a diary. I completely live in the now, not in the past, not in the future." - Heath Ledger

A brief memorial service was held for Heath Ledger Saturday night (Jan. 26, 2008) at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles.

The service was attended by Heath's immediate family and Ledger's ex-fiancée, Michelle Williams, mother of his only child, 2-year-old Matilda.

Ledger's body was flown from New York to Los Angeles Jan. 25, accompanied by his father, Kim Ledger. The actor's body was to be flown to his native Perth, Australia, on Jan. 27, where he will be laid to rest later this week.

Ledger, nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005), was found dead Jan. 22 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills nearby.

A two-hour autopsy on Jan. 23 proved inconclusive. Blood and tissue tests results weren't expected for 10 days to two weeks, the medical examiner’s office said.

Earlier, police said the death was caused by a possible drug overdose and appeared to be accidental. There was no evidence of foul play and no note or any other obvious evidence pointing toward suicide.

Two law enforcement officials (who asked not to be named) said six types of prescription drugs, including an antihistamine and pills to treat anxiety and insomnia, were found in the apartment, according to the Associated Press.

A publicist for Ledger said the actor was suffering from the flu and had been prescribed antibiotics during recent filming for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in London .

Ledger himself told The New York Times in November 2007 that he taking Ambien, a prescription medication used for the short-term treatment of insomnia. He discussed the difficulty he was having with portraying The Joker in Batman sequel The Dark Knight, a character he described as a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still going."

Police estimate Ledger died between 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 22

His housekeeper , Teresa Solomon, had arrived at the apartment (located at 421 Broome Street) at around 12:30 p.m. Approximately 30 minutes later, she entered the actor's bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom and found him lying in bed, face down, with a sheet pulled up to his shoulders. Solomon told police she heard Ledger snoring and left the room, thinking nothing was wrong.

A massage therapist, Diana Wolozin, arrived at 2:45 p.m. for a scheduled appointment. When Ledger failed to emerge or answer his bedroom door by 3 p.m., Wolozin said she called his cell phone. There was no answer.

Wolozin told police she then entered Ledger's bedroom, went to the closet and began setting up her massage table near his bed. Wolozin twice attempted to stir the actor from his sleep but he was unresponsive. She told police that Ledger's body was cold to the touch.

At 3:17 p.m., Wolozin reportedly grabbed Ledger's cell phone and called Full House actress Mary-Kate Olsen, who she knew was a friend of Ledger's, seeking advice.

"Mary-Kate and Heath were casually dating for three months before Heath's death," a source told People.com. "They were hooking up, but neither were particularly interested in making it exclusive."

But Olsen released a statement Jan. 25, saying: "Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family during this very difficult time"

Wolozin's first call to Olsen lasted 49 seconds. At 3:20 p.m., Wolozin called Olsen back and talked 1 minute and 39 seconds. At 3:24 p.m., a third call to Olsen was made, lasting only 21 seconds.

At some point during the frenzy, Olsen, 21, who was in California, summoned private security guards to the apartment, police said.

Wolozin finally called 911 at 3:26 p.m. and told them Ledger was not breathing. The emergency operator on the other end instructed Wolozin on how to perform CPR and urged her to revive Ledger.

Paramedics arrived at the scene at 3:33 p.m., as did the security guards summoned by Olsen. In fact, they went up the building's elevator together, but Paramedics did not allow the security guards into the bedroom where Ledger died.

Ledger's body was moved to the floor as medical workers used a defibrillator and CPR, to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m., 19 minutes after Wolozin first called Olsen.

The masseuse had called Olsen a final time at 3:34 p.m. for an unknown length of time.

Police who responded to the scene believe Ledger was already dead while his masseuse was dialing Olsen due to the lividity of the body (the manner in which blood settles after a person dies).

Published reports had suggested that Wolozin had called Olsen to hatch a plan to hide illegal drugs in Heath’s apartments. But that was not the case.

"There is absolutely no indication that investigators were going to speak to Mary-Kate Olsen," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference on Jan. 27. "They determined that they had all the information needed, by the witnesses who were on the scene: That's the cleaning woman, the masseuse."

Shocked fans set up a makeshift memorial on the sidewalk in front of his loft in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. By Jan. 24, it had grown to more than 100 bouquets of tulips, daisies, carnations and tropical flowers, along with candles, signs and notes.

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was born on April 4, 1979, in the western Australian city of Perth. Heath and his sister Katherine were named after two main characters in Emily Bonte's Wuthering Heights. His parents Kim, a race car driver and mining engineer, and Sally, a French teacher, divorced when he was 11.

Ledger attended Guildford Grammar School and landed his first acting role playing Peter Pan in a school production at age 10. He was also an extra in the movie Clowning Around (1992). And a year later he appeared in the TV series Ship To Shore, a kind of Australian version of Happy Days. Then in 1996, Ledger played a gay cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in the television show, Sweat.

At age 16, Ledger made the cross-country move to Sydney to pursue an acting career. He made his real film debut in Blackrock (1997), where a schoolboy witnesses a rape and murder but must not to betray his friends.

Next up, Ledger starred in Roar , a U.S.-financed mediaeval fantasy, filmed in Queensland and costarring Keri Russell. The television series introduced him to co-star Lisa Zane (sister of Billy), with whom he would begin a relationship. With Fox heavily hyping the series, Ledger found himself an American agent and followed Zane back to Los Angeles at age 19.

After struggling a bit, he got a big break by landing the role opposite Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You, a reworking of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

But instead of accepting more offers to do teen flicks, Ledger preferred independent films. He appeared in The Patriot (2000) with Mel Gibson, Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball (2001) and A Knight's Tale (2001).

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in Brokeback Mountain, a 2005 film about two cowboys who fall in love directed by Ang Lee and co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

In Candy (2006), Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend. He also played an incarnation of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There (2007).

Ironically, his final role was in an anticipated summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight, playing Batman's nemesis, the Joker. The sequel to 2005's Batman Begins is due in U.S. theaters on July 18, 2008.

People magazine named Ledger one of its "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2001.

Ledger seemed to have a thing for older women. After Lisa Zane (18 years his senior), he dated Melbourne model Christina Cauchi and actress Heather Graham (nine years his senior) for a year (2000-01). He also had a relationship with actress Naomi Watts (11 years his senior) for two years (2002-04). They had met on the set of Ned Kelly (2003). She attended Ledger’s memorial service in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2008.

Ledger then met actress Michelle Williams (she was a year younger than Heath) on the set of Brokeback Mountain. The couple was engaged and moved into Brooklyn's Boerum Hill neighborhood. They had a daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger (born October 28, 2005 in New York City).

After he split with Williams in the summer of 2007, Ledger moved to SoHo and was often spotted at clubs and bars with actresses and models.

Williams, who was in Trollhattan, Sweden, shooting scenes for the upcoming film Mammoth, was reportedly "devastated" when got the news of Ledger's death at her hotel late Tuesday night (Jan. 22).

She and Matilda, 2, left Sweden early Wednesday on a plane for New York , arriving at the Brooklyn home she shared with Ledger shortly before 8:30 p.m. Williams' mother, Carla, and actress (and Matilda's godmother) Busy Phillips were waiting to console her, according to published reports.

Ledger's family placed a death notice Jan. 25 in The West Australian, a newspaper based in Perth , remembering him as "the most amazing 'old soul' in a young man's body."

"As a close knit and very private family we have observed you so determined yet quietly traveling in your self-styled path in life," said the notice. "Our hearts are broken."

In a separate notice, Ledger's father Kim wrote: "Heatho, Beef ... my beautiful boy, so loving, so talented, so independent ... so no more chess games mate ... this is it, couldn't beat you anyway.

"We were one, in soul and commitment, just ... father and son."

Ledger's mother, Sally Ledger-Bell, said the family would always be there for his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda.

The actor's sister, Kate, said she could "hardly breathe" as she tried to write her tribute.

"We were the ultimate soul mates," she said. "You were so many things to so many people, but to me you were just my little brother. You will never leave my thoughts, 'Roast', ever."

"It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a statement. "Heath Ledger's diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor."