Fade to Black - Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger was found dead in a NY apartment this afternoon. He was 28. Reports indicate that he was found by a housekeeper who was trying to inform him that a massage therapist had arrived for an appointment.

Instead, the housekeeper found Ledger in bed, naked and unresponsive. Prescription and non-prescription pills were on a night table beside him.

USmagazine.com filed this report:

"This is terrible and I'm in shock," a close friend of Ledger's tells Usmagazine.com. "But to tell you the truth... we saw it coming."

"Heath has gone though a rough road of trying to get sober," the source tells Us.

"Things were very dark," the source says. "His one joy was Matilda." Matilda is his 2-year-old daughter with ex-wife Michelle Williams. They split in September.

"Everything else was misery for him," adds the source. "Unfortunately he was too late in getting help."

What a horrible thing to die a celebrity. If a nobody swallows pills and ends it all, he gets three lines in some hometown obit. If a celebrity dies, everyone hears how a maid found him drugged out and bare-assed.

It will take a while for the cops to come out and say whether it was a suicide or not. Either way, it's a terrible waste, first for his family, second for film. We tend to forget that these larger than life individuals have families. Right now, there's a French teacher named Mrs. Ledger crying for the loss of her little boy, and a two-year-old Matilda Ledger that doesn't know she will never see her father again.

Ledger was a very good actor. I saw him in his first Hollywood role, the loverboy in 10 Things I Hate About You. The movie was crap, but Ledger was good. He skyrocketed to fame in big pictures like The Patriot and Brokeback Mountain, and his place as a Hollywood superstar was affirmed with a turn as The Joker in this summer's The Dark Knight, which finished shooting last year.

Ledger as The Joker

The Dark Knight just got a whole lot darker, perhaps as dark as the mood of the producers that made the film. They must be wondering about the future of their project. It will be interesting to see how fans react to it. If Ledger did kill himself, then every crazy, eye-rolling, twisted gag of the Joker's will seem very dark indeed. Too dark? We'll see.

I wasn't a fan of Brokeback Mountain. It was a story about two gay shepherds that was much over-hyped and is now nearly forgotten. Ledger did a good job with it, and got an Oscar nomination for his role, but I will remember him more for his part in Monster's Ball. In that film, he showed a vulnerability that may have been more than merely acting.

Photos: Yahoo Movies