Flashback - Heath Leger interview by Jon Stewert

It seems obvious by all the attention that Heath Leger's death has raised that he meant something to many people. He was a good looking actor who took a very risky role of a `gay cowboy', at a time when our country was debating State by State the rights of gay people to get married. He and Jake both felt secure enough in their own sexuality that they both claimed in post movie interviews- "It wasn't a big deal, it was just like kissing another person."

He exemplified in a way that Brad Pitt has, that simply being a good looking actor was not enough - he wanted challenging roles. And as a person who tried to do his best, he did not always or often receive good reviews. But he was never `bad'.

When the new batman movie comes out, I suspect, we might hear of another Oscar nomination from his depiction as the `Joker', as it comes to the medias attention how much effort he put into the part and how much it took out of him.

Police Give New Details on Ledger Death

By Al Baker

Updated, 9:17 p.m. | The masseuse who discovered the body of Heath Ledger in a Manhattan apartment on Tuesday twice called a friend of his, the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, before calling 911, New York City police officials said on Wednesday. The officials, who provided new details about Mr. Ledger’s death, emphasized that no illegal drugs were found in the apartment and that there were no obvious signs of suicide. Tests on a rolled-up $20 bill that was found in the apartment found no evidence that the bill had been used to handle drugs, they said.

According to the police, around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment, at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, to do household chores. At about 1 p.m., she went into Mr. Ledger’s bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom; she found him on the bed face down, with the sheet pulled up to his shoulders, and heard him snoring.

A masseuse, Diana Wolozin, arrived to give Mr. Ledger a massage about 2:45 p.m. At 3 p.m., after Mr. Ledger did not emerge from his bedroom, with the door closed, the masseuse called him on his cellphone but got no answer. She entered the bedroom and saw him lying in bed. She took a massage table out of the closet and began to set it up near his bed. She then went over to him and shook him, but got no response. Using his cellphone, she used a speed-dial button to call Ms. Olsen in California to seek her guidance, knowing Ms. Olsen to be a friend of Mr. Ledger’s.

According to the authorities, Ms. Wolozin told Ms. Olsen that Mr. Ledger was unconscious. Ms. Olsen said she would call some private security people she knew in New York, and hung up. Ms. Wolozin again shook Mr. Ledger, called Ms. Olsen a second time, and said she believed the situation was grave and would call 911.

Ms. Wolozin called 911 at 3:26 p.m. to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing. The call occurred less than 15 minutes since she had first seen him in bed and only a few moments after the first call to Ms. Olsen. The 911 operator urged Ms. Wolozin to try to revive Mr. Ledger, but Ms. Wolozin’s efforts were not successful.

Emergency medical workers arrived at 3:33 p.m., at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen. The medical workers moved his body to the floor and then used a defibrillator and CPR, to no avail. Mr. Ledger was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. By that point, two other private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen had arrived, as had police officers.

“I’m not going to speculate on why 911 was not called first,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The police said that all five witnesses — Ms. Solomon, the housekeeper; Ms. Wolozin, the masseuse; and the three private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen — were fully cooperating with the authorities. (On Tuesday, the police at first mistakenly stated that Ms. Olsen owned the apartment; she does not. They later corrected the error.)

The police conducted tests on a rolled-up $20 bill found in Mr. Ledger’s apartment, but found no evidence that the bill had been used for anything improper. No illegal narcotics or alcohol was found in the apartment. Two types of prescription medication — sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication — were found in the apartment, but it is not known if the medications played a role in his death.

Detectives from the Police Department’s 5th Precinct were looking to examine any surveillance videos from the apartment building and the surrounding area but were also awaiting the results of an investigation by the New York City chief medical examiner’s office. That office conducted an autopsy early Wednesday morning but said that the results were inconclusive and that additional testing was needed.

The death of Mr. Ledger, 28, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award, has attracted international attention.