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The second thing that struck me was, he looked a heck of a lot older than 28.
I had ample luxury when it came to hunting down footage of Ledger. I heard about his death at 8.40 am on Merrick & Rosso, my favourite breakfast radio show. They were shattered, recounting events they'd attended with Heath, mentioning friends and family of his.
I had the surreal experience of typing 'Heath Ledger' into Google and news.com.au & finding nothing. 'Is this a joke?' asked my housemate, referring to Merrick & Rosso's penchant for april fool's type antics. The internet kept throwing up fan sites & old movie titles. Nothing about death.
I kept hitting refresh on the browser, watching YouTube video of Ledger's interviews.
It took about 10 minutes for news.com.au to react. Heath Ledger found dead. The details trickling in & then repeating themselves & repeating themselves.
What a waste, I thought again, adding up the shy young interviewee, the small list of quality films with his name attached, the young daughter, the sleeping pills, the pnuemonia (of all things -- that kills people even in Manhattan, even now?), the reports of stress, the assertion on the radio that he was 'an artist, not a movie star'.
Life is generally too short anyhow. But 28? Way too damn short.
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The strain of pneumonia that killed Jim Henson hit and killed him in eighteen hours flat. I had the same strain when I was living in Los Angeles, and it was only quick action on my ex-wife's part that saved me -- by the time I was diagnosed in the ER I was almost gone. It was a week before they booted me from the hospital, and I was still in rotten enough shape afterwards that I spent a year out on disability. It was a good six months before I could walk up a flight of stairs without stopping every two steps, and it took being out of L.A. for several years before my lungs stopped being completely dodgy. I still have asthma issues.
But apparently the good things about his life did not provide enough of a lifeline to save him from the bad things. This is what makes me so sad about this--realizing that he was so depressed and unhappy that he couldn't see his way clear. That is some extra-strength, horrifyingly extreme depression. The pain he must have been in.
It says something for the potential effects on actors of effectively and deeply inhabiting characters.