By: J Boyle - 7th February 2008 at 17:40
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced it will probe the doctors who gave the Australian actor the drugs which, when taken together, shut down his body until he died.
Source : Herald Sun
Earlier media reports indicated that some of the prescriptions were from doctors in Europe or the UK where he was doing a film.
That’s a danger of a mobile lifestyle and seeing different doctors all the time. They don’t know what the last doctor prescribed.
And patients don’t always tell doctors that they’re already on (or have) several medications. Either because they really don’t recall the last set of pills they got, or because they lie and simply want more for existing addictions. My wife (a nurse at a large diagnostic clinic) sees that a lot…people trying to get narcotics.
I’m not saying that’s what happened with Ledger, but it really does happen.
At the end of the day though..if Ledger had all these legal pills in his possession,
you would have thought he’d be smart enough not to mix them or take too many at one time.
It’s not like this has never happened before.
Sad case. RIP.
By: Rocketeer - 7th February 2008 at 07:12
The findings have shown that press sensationalism ’empty bottle’ is tosh…it is a sad loss of a lovely guy and actor
By: steve rowell - 7th February 2008 at 06:54
Heath Ledger’s fatal overdose from a cocktail of powerful drugs has prompted a US government investigation into why doctors prescribed the Australian actor the deadly mix of pills.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced it will probe the doctors who gave the Australian actor the drugs which, when taken together, shut down his body until he died.
The New York medical examiner’s office today ruled that Ledger died from an accidental overdose of multiple prescription medications.
Tests on the 28-year-old’s blood detected six different drugs, including narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety pills and sleep medication.
Ledger’s grieving family said the actor’s death served as a warning about the dangers of combining prescription drugs.
US and Australian drug experts said the medications were strong, and should never have been taken together.
The drugs would likely have slowed down Ledger’s body to the point where he slipped into unconsciousness and died, they said.
“He was playing Russian roulette,” said Patti Geier, a New York-based psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker.
But Professor Margaret Gnegy, director of the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Centre, said Ledger would have had a better chance of surviving Russian roulette than the cocktail of drugs he consumed.
“It really was a dangerous mix,” professor Gnegy said.
Professor Ric Day, of the University of NSW in Sydney, said Ledger likely got the drugs from different doctors who were unaware of what else he was taking.
“No reasonable doctor would ever prescribe this combination,” he said.
Announcing the DEA investigation, public affairs section chief Garrison Courtney said: “This is a routine procedure when anybody overdoses.
“We look at whether the controlled substances that were taken were legitimate, whether they were ordered under a false name, and how they might have been purchased,” he told US TV show, Access Hollywood.
The drugs the Oscar nominee consumed before his death in a Manhattan apartment on January 22 included the painkiller OxyContin, the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax and the sleeping pills Restoril and Unisom.
An over-the-counter antihistamine was also detected.
Suicide was ruled out because of the low levels of each drug in Ledger’s system.
No heroin, cocaine or other illegal drugs were detected in his blood.
“Today’s results put an end to speculation, but our son’s beautiful spirit and enduring memory will forever remain in our hearts,” the actor’s father Kim Ledger said.
“While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy.
“Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage.”
However, speculation is likely to continue until the DEA investigates the doctors who prescribed the drugs.
New York police said some of the medications found near Ledger’s body appeared to have been prescribed in Europe. Ledger was filming in London just days before he died.
As officials revealed how Ledger died, his family, two-year-old daughter Matilda, and former fiancee Michelle Williams prepared for his funeral in Perth.
The funeral, expected to be held within days, will be private.
Ledger’s family and Williams have repeatedly pleaded for privacy and for the media to let them grieve.
Source : Herald Sun
By: steve rowell - 28th January 2008 at 04:44
AS film and television stars remembered Australian actor Heath Ledger at the annual Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles, anti-gay protesters picketed outside over his role in Brokeback Mountain.
Mourned … the SAGs ceremony stops to remember Heath Ledger / AP
A screening of film clips to honour stars who died in the past year ended with a scene from Brokeback Mountain featuring Ledger, 28, who was found dead in his Manhattan apartment last week.
British actor Daniel Day-Lewis dedicated his SAG award to Ledger, saying the Australian star’s work had inspired him to keep acting.
In a moving acceptance speech as he collected the best actor award for his performance in There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis said Ledger’s role in 2005 gay cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain had been unique.
Day-Lewis said Ledger encouraged other actors to keep “regenerating” through his challenging performances.
“For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment, of renewal, the thing that teased me with the question ‘How is such a thing possible’ and then dared you go back into the arena one more time has always been the work of other actors,” Day-Lewis said.
“There are many actors in this room tonight including my fellow nominees who’ve given me that sense of regeneration. Heath Ledger gave it to me,” he said, to loud applause.
Outside the Shrine auditorium where the awards were held, protesters held up signs that read “Heath’s in Hell”, a reference to Ledger’s role in Brokeback Mountain, the Associated Press reported.
Backstage, Day-Lewis said Ledger’s memory should be left alone, as should his family, “to suffer their unimaginable grief in private.
“We should just stop encouraging people to have greater and greater interest in raking over every detail, which is none of our business anyhow.”
Before the awards, Canadian actor Ryan Gosling was seen on the red carpet wearing a black ribbon on his lapel which he said was to honour the memory of Ledger.
Ledger was nominated for two SAG Awards in 2005 for his performance in Brokeback Mountain.
The actor was found dead at his New York apartment last Tuesday.
A post-mortem examination has failed to determine the cause of death and it will be at least a week until toxicology test results are known.
Source: AFP
By: Ren Frew - 26th January 2008 at 03:47
To be fair, Steve, that probably says more about the average age of the people who use this site than anything else.
We like to pay silent tribute to the heroes of the Dan Dare generation. Modern day heroes, a bit like Bob Marley, go together well with the Wailers ! 😉
By: Grey Area - 25th January 2008 at 23:56
Exactly..look at the Sir Edmund Hillary thread.. one of the most influential men of the Twentieth century dies and it elicited just five responses..yet a young b grade actor dies and it’s big news
To be fair, Steve, that probably says more about the average age of the people who use this site than anything else.
By: steve rowell - 25th January 2008 at 23:51
My sympathy of course to his family . .
but
. . . isn’t it amazing how we pick out a very very few people (usually because they are in the films or on our television screens) and make such a great fuss about them being so overwhelmingly important while untold millions of other people die or suffer the most extreme deprivation in complete obscurity.
It all makes me wonder about the human condition.
Exactly..look at the Sir Edmund Hillary thread.. one of the most influential men of the Twentieth century dies and it elicited just five responses..yet a young b grade actor dies and it’s big news
By: duxfordhawk - 25th January 2008 at 12:25
Shift workers suffer insomnia too, but they don’t generally turn up dead beside a bottle of tablets… I suspect he was influenced by others to use this method, if we’re talking about an ‘accident’ and yes I’m beginning to suspect it probably was… One of those Hollywood accidents that should have stopped happening twenty years or so ago when River Phoenix puked his life away outside the Viper Rooms…
I am a shift worker and sadly i do suffer bouts of insomnia from time to time, But i make a point of avoiding any sleeping drugs as i feel once you start taking these things you get to rely on them, I am guessing in Heath’s case he got desperate for sleep and because his body and become dependant on the tablets already he needed more, Sadly he took too many and they took him.
It is a great pity because i think he would probably have had a huge career ahead of him, He was certainly a talented actor and had something special that many younger actors don’t have these days.
By: Pete Truman - 24th January 2008 at 17:34
Heath Ledger the 28 year old star of Brokeback Mountain has been found dead beside an empty bottle of sleeping pills in Manhattan
Have you forgotten what you said about that film in the Western thread!!!!!!
I heard Michael Caine talking about Ledgers role as the Joker in the Batman movie, he reckoned that despite Jack Nicholsons original role being an impossible act to follow, Ledger excelled that, luvvy talk I know, but Nicholson is naturally unhinged, maybe trying to beat that sent him over the edge, who knows.
Surely we’ve all had our moments of black despair, for whatever reason, I certainly have, sometimes even people at the top have no-one to talk to at the critical moment, we’re an odd tribe.
I was interested to read that those religious nutters hoped that 1m of us Brits would die in the 2005 tube bombings, why?, which million, is that their calculation of the number of gays in this country, or Catholics, or what, aviation enthusiasts more like, as we think we’re closer to ‘God’ no doubt.
By: Ren Frew - 24th January 2008 at 16:09
Jesus Christ! 😡
No pun intended! :rolleyes:
Can they not see it’s a FILM!
These are the same clowns Louis Theroux did a programme on…seriously mad inbred wierdos the lot of them…
Hey… ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ was a film too.. 😀
By: DazDaMan - 24th January 2008 at 15:41
Jesus Christ! 😡
No pun intended! :rolleyes:
Can they not see it’s a FILM!
By: cal900 - 24th January 2008 at 15:25
I see the Westboro Baptist Church will “picket this pervert’s funeral, in religious protest”.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080124/twl-heath-ledger-death-baptist-group-to-3fd0ae9.html
What kind well meaning people.
By: Ren Frew - 24th January 2008 at 14:24
It all makes me wonder about the human condition.
Three things…
It’s perfectly natural to feel compassion and express grief for people we know as opposed to those we never knew or heard of.
It’s not unreasonable to feel compassion or express grief for celebrities in this way, as many aspects of human relationships in a real sense are replicated in the ‘relationships’ people/fans form in their hearts and minds with the aforementioned ‘celebrities’…
Yes indeed, the human condition is a remarkable thing.
By: flyernzl - 24th January 2008 at 09:22
My sympathy of course to his family . .
but
. . . isn’t it amazing how we pick out a very very few people (usually because they are in the films or on our television screens) and make such a great fuss about them being so overwhelmingly important while untold millions of other people die or suffer the most extreme deprivation in complete obscurity.
It all makes me wonder about the human condition.
By: steve rowell - 24th January 2008 at 01:58
His family are on their way to New York to collect his remains for burial back in his hometown of Perth Western Australia
By: Ren Frew - 24th January 2008 at 00:58
If the IMDB entry for him is to be believed, he suffered from insomnia following the filming of The Dark Knight….
Either way, accidental or not, it’s a sad end….
Shift workers suffer insomnia too, but they don’t generally turn up dead beside a bottle of tablets… I suspect he was influenced by others to use this method, if we’re talking about an ‘accident’ and yes I’m beginning to suspect it probably was… One of those Hollywood accidents that should have stopped happening twenty years or so ago when River Phoenix puked his life away outside the Viper Rooms…
By: Arabella-Cox - 23rd January 2008 at 20:39
He suffered fame ! and paid the price, if you can’t handle it get out . Guess he did.
i dont think the fame angle was the real problem(although it wont have helped) more likely a case of too intense a portrayal of the characters he depicted (broke back mountain,batman(joker) resulting in huge stress levels and the resulting lack of sleep(he commented that the “joker “role was played out as a homicidal physicopath which he found very hard to come out of) plus some inexperienced medical advice and there you have it he, simply overprescribed himself shades of brian epstein and others before him ,however you view it Heath Ledger was a very gifted actor and his loss is truly very sad indeed.
By: Norman D Lands - 23rd January 2008 at 19:05
He suffered fame ! and paid the price, if you can’t handle it get out . Guess he did.
By: DazDaMan - 23rd January 2008 at 12:12
If the IMDB entry for him is to be believed, he suffered from insomnia following the filming of The Dark Knight….
Either way, accidental or not, it’s a sad end….
By: Ren Frew - 23rd January 2008 at 11:43
Authorities are stating it’s an “accidental overdose”….
Must remember that, next time I can’t sleep and ‘accidentally’ empty a bottle of sleeping meds…
You have to wonder why a young man, ascendant in his field and with a two year old daughter should choose to ‘apparently’ commit suicide, but then there’s seldom a rational explanation for these things is there…?
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January 23, 2008 at 4:14 am