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Topic: Heath Ledger
| Author | Message |
| GrOoVaL!c!OuS | Posted – 1/23/2008 11:32:11 AM | show profile He died. At 28! I'm sad. Discuss? |
| wineaux | Posted – 1/23/2008 12:08:05 PM | show profile Don't bring it up in the TV news section. You might get flamed. I'm sad too. He seemed like he really had it together and was a pretty cool guy. It is so depressing to think that his daughter is too young to ever remember him. |
| jr_designer | Posted – 1/23/2008 12:13:48 PM | show profile It's such a shame - I think I'm still in a bit of shock over it. And of course, leave it to the media to jump to conclusions in the first hour about what caused it. Does it really matter how he died? A young and talented man died and all everyone is doing is trying to figure out the details of it all. That's for the police and family to know, not the media and us. Besides that, they are shoving cameras in everyone's face to get a reaction instead of letting the family have their time to grieve.. terrible. Prayers go out to all his family! |
| Righter | Posted – 1/23/2008 12:21:12 PM | show profile I was shocked. My fiance and I are huge fans of his and it's really sad to think his life was cut so short so suddenly. |
| pholiday | Posted – 1/23/2008 1:29:13 PM | show profile It is just terrible. Especially with Matilda. He was a great actor - much in the same way as Nicholson (not just b/c the joker.) Just goes to show (even though toxicology etc. is still out) don't mix scripts. |
| GrOoVaL!c!OuS | Posted – 1/23/2008 1:36:11 PM | show profile Matilda The person I feel just awful for is his little girl, Matilda, which someone already mentioned. She'll have no memories of him. It's nice that she'll have pictures and movies and all that. But I wonder if that will make her miss him even more. Ya know, wondering what it would've been like to have him around. By all accounts, he was a fun and very involved dad. My heart breaks for her. |
| sue ellen mischke | Posted – 1/23/2008 2:14:43 PM | show profile Every time I scroll to this section, I keep seeing "Health Ledger" even though it clearly is "Heath Ledger." |
| mentat | Posted – 1/23/2008 2:55:10 PM | show profile It's devastating. And so many parallels with River Phoenix. They both had so much heart and talent and integrity, and flew in the face of all of the typical Hollywood pretty-boy cliches. And both did so much for the image of the gay community. I feel a tremendous loss. |
| Righter | Posted – 1/23/2008 5:33:07 PM | show profile Wineaux, you're right. I just clicked on the Heath Ledger link in the TVnews section. It's like walking into a middle school cafeteria in the midst of a food fight. Crap being thrown around all over the place. Quietly close the door....and exit. |
| Iron Eagle | Posted – 1/23/2008 5:39:10 PM | show profile It's Hollywood! This stuff happens all of the time. Is Amy Winehouse next? |
| foto | Posted – 1/23/2008 7:14:31 PM | show profile Seems like the traditional Rock & Roll death: Alcohol and sleeping pills. I think I'll rent Brokeback Mountain again. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 1/23/2008 7:20:29 PM | show profile he really had it together? people who die of a drug overdose at age 28 don't have it together. in general, movie stars don't have it together because they're not living in the real world -- they're adored by millions of strangers who've never met them. They have money to burn. They're treated like Gods and yet get too bored by all of it tnd pump themselves so full of drugs that they occasionally die. |
| mentat | Posted – 1/23/2008 8:15:18 PM | show profile The autopsy was inconclusive. there's general consesus, though, that the death was ACCIDENTAL. They were precription drugs, not illegal narcotics. Don't generalize about "celebrities"--some of them really are grounded, centered people. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 1/23/2008 8:34:48 PM | show profile I know the autopsy results aren't in. But someone is suddenly found naked and dead at 28, it's from drugs. Whether they were perscribed or illegal, it doesn't matter -- the guy was abusing drugs and died from it. To say he had it together is absurd. It's selfish to abuse any form of drugs -- selfish because it's self-descructive and it effects everyone around you in a negative way, and sadly in this case the worst effect of the selfishness is that a daughter no longer has a father. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 1/23/2008 9:05:43 PM | show profile The only film of his I ever saw was Brokeback Mountain, which I found boring and left halfway through to keep from falling asleep. His death is sad, as anyone's is who dies in those conditions, but for me the fact that he was a movie star didn't make it any more important or particularly memorable. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 1/23/2008 9:55:25 PM | show profile oh I adore brokeback mountain -- one of my all-time favorites. I think that the sudden death of someone in the public eye can be an inherently dramatic and gripping story to many people (not everyone, clearly). And if you happen to be a fan of that person, it's like they've been a part of your life in some way, and their loss can be really unexpectedly sad. |
| sue ellen mischke | Posted – 1/23/2008 9:59:07 PM | show profile I didn't know who he was and still wish this post was "Health Ledger," which is far more interesting than fallen Hollywood stardust. |
| foto | Posted – 1/23/2008 10:01:44 PM | show profile James Dean achieved icon status for only 3 movies. Perhaps Heath Ledger will ascend to immortality as well. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 1/23/2008 10:19:36 PM | show profile I'm sure Heath, wherever he is, has his fingers crossed in the hopes that he reaches the status of immortal icon. Otherwise, what's life all about? Being some unknown goon toiling away at some piddly little job until you reach the end. If someone lays a flower on your grave in 2508, your life had meaning. |
| Astera | Posted – 1/23/2008 11:45:35 PM | show profile I have to say, Heath Ledger is not a celebrity I would have picked for an early death. (Britney Spears, anyone?) I think he was quite talented, and it was a surprise to hear of his passing. Honestly, this is one of the first celebrity deaths where I've thought, "What a shame. What a waste." Maybe it's because he's in my age range, so I remember him from his first rom-com teen flicks, and it seems more personal, somehow. ------ www.adventuresofastera.blogspot.com |
| GrOoVaL!c!OuS | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:43:40 AM | show profile I think the reason I'm so sad is because Heath seemed to be what a lot of other young moviestars aren't these days: immensely talented, disciplined, intense, up to a challenge, and committed to his work. He had a professional reputation for taking on projects that stretched him the most creatively. He chose NOT to do back to back to back teen flicks. He was an actor's actor, and people liked and respected him. I didn't know the guy, but I sure liked him a whole bunch. To hear that he's died at 28 is really sad, no matter the circumstances. |
| wineaux | Posted – 1/24/2008 12:11:29 PM | show profile I agree, Groove. Everything you mentioned is why it is affecting me. So many of these actors are just such a mess in so many ways, and he really seemed together. A very good friend of the husband's worked with him early in his career, and said he was absolutely professional and down to earth. I know it's kind of early to speculate, but I wonder if he just had a bad heart. I hope, really and truly, that it wasn't an overdose. But, I think this country needs to wake up to the fact that prescriptions are now handed out like candy, and Pharmecutical companies are really given the green light to use tactics to draw in customers in a way that is truly appalling. I once worked for a catering company who had lots of pharm. reps as clients. They would send steak and lobster lunches to doctors, and I've been told that is just the tip of the iceberg of what the reps are giving them (trips, jewelry, etc...) In almost any other business this would be illegal. Why is it o.k. for doctors to be wooed into peddling drugs to patients who probably don't even need most of them, and are, probably, being more harmed than helped? I mean, look at those frickin' labels. And the commercials!! Gas with an oily discharge????? I'm sorry, but I'd rather keep getting my migranes than deal with that nastiness. You should see the barrage of medications the nurse at my children's school administers. I don't know how much is neccessary or how much is behavioral, but it seems like an awful lot, and I think it is getting more and more normal to dole out pills the minute people have an ailment. I know prescriptions have their benefits, obviously. But it seems like there are far too many people out there who think there problems will evaporate by taking a little blue pill every day. And they don't look into the complications and side effects deeply enough. I really feel like we should be called "Medicated America". Okay, I'm done venting. |
| pholiday | Posted – 1/24/2008 1:03:42 PM | show profile And the best part about living in "Medicated America" is that 3/4 of us don't have or cant afford health care for real problems - like cancer (because whatever your belief might be, mine is that while anxiety is real - it isn't usually an illness and a pill isn't the cure). F'ed up priorities in good old America, especially in the health care sector. |
| pamelabeth | Posted – 1/29/2008 10:39:31 PM | show profile i, too, believe that we are overmedicated. drugs are big money, but it's f-ed up for them to be a major part of the economy and thus pushed....! heath ledger was going through a separation, and that is tough. and i gather that his movie work was demanding of late. but hey, camomille tea also works as a sleep aid, and you can't accidentally die from it. that said, i love his work and hold him in very high regard. i think he accidentally messed up with the meds (which were so easily available), and i'm very sorry that he won't be around to help raise his daughter and to do more great work for decades to come. the scene in "brokeback" where he goes up to jack's childhood room haunts me to this day. |
| Bleak Spouse | Posted – 1/29/2008 11:20:31 PM | show profile Groov: Really? I think it's ridiculous that so many people are paying tribute to him. Daniel Day-Lewis can't seem to stop blubbering about him, even though he never met him. But the thing is, he was an actor. He didn't make the world better in any way, like say a doctor can. He was so self-absorbed that he was out partying all the time, apparently taking lots of drugs, when he had a child at home. And then he died of a drug overdose. In many ways, he got what he deserved. And the fact that so many people are blubbering over him shows how pop culture shit (like movie stardom) has a grip on people for some ungodly reason. |
