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Towards the end of last year, friends, relations and hangers-on seemed to encounter two very different versions of Heath Ledger. According to his family and ex-partner Michelle Williams, Ledger was a responsible family man devoted to his daughter, as well as being clean and sober. According to New York's show-business fringe, Ledger was instead a drug-abusing, womanising, party animal simply out for a good time, paying little regard to the consequences.
A feature article in New York Magazine carried quotes from an unnamed young woman who claimed to have had a three-month fling with him during this period. "Heath was obviously in a vulnerable state," she said. "He didn't like being this star. He was kind of quiet unless he was comfortable, and it really seemed as if he was just trying to have fun. He had a party at his loft once, and it was really crazy. There were drugs there, but he didn't touch them. I saw [drugs] offered to him multiple times. Ecstasy, cocaine, even prescription stuff - but he never touched it. I was with him at least a dozen times, and he was always sober. Just cigarettes."
It is possible both of these seemingly conflicting versions of Ledger contain some degree of truth. Ledger was overjoyed to be a father and his separation from Williams had hit him hard, reflected in his almost total silence on the subject. It's possible he'd had drink and drug issues, as alleged by those who claimed Williams had tried to force him into rehab as far back as March 2006. These problems may have escalated once he was on his own, forced into a bachelor lifestyle. He was a young movie star on his own in New York: wouldn't attending celebrity parties, with all that entails, come naturally?
Ledger was never particularly good at being alone: he could be overwhelmed by self-pity, depression and anxiety about his career, his abilities and the paranoia that he was being stalked by aggressive paparazzi.
Early in January this year, Ledger was in London shooting The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and was spotted acting out a scene in which his character is apparently hanged by the neck under a bridge. After his death, disturbing photographs from the scene appeared on the internet. Other images from his final year show an unhealthy-looking man, seemingly older than his 28 years. Co-star Christopher Plummer had noticed Ledger's ill health and feared he was suffering from "walking pneumonia. We all caught colds, because we were shooting outside on horrible, damp nights," said Plummer. "What's more, Heath was saying all the time, Dammit, I can't sleep', and he was taking all these pills."
When the shoot wrapped on Saturday, January 19, Ledger flew to New York to spend some time with 2-year-old Matilda, but she and Williams were in Sweden due to filming commitments. This no doubt disappointed Ledger, who hadn't seen Matilda for some time, and may have deepened his growing despondency.
Between Monday night and Tuesday morning, Ledger was apparently alone. How did he spend his evening at his spacious Broome St apartment? Based on his recent track record, he probably had trouble sleeping. What was going through his mind? Among the things he had to think about would be worries concerning his role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - on Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight, Ledger had been unable to sleep due to his concerns about the work he was doing in front of the camera. Was he achieving all he wanted with the character? Did he feel like a fraud once more, someone on the verge of being "found out"?
As his anxiety increased, his loneliness overwhelmed him and, as the long, dark New York night wore on, Heath seems to have fallen back on his prescription medications to help him relax. They'd worked in the past in allowing him to slip into oblivion and forget his cares for a while, but less so now. Did he think he'd try a few more to allow him some much sought-after sleep? Was he just tired, depressed, anxious and confused? Did he forget how many pills he'd already taken and, half awake, half-asleep, take more? After all, they were prescribed by doctors, they must be safe. Intelligent though he was, Ledger didn't seem to consider the effect his multiple medications might have in combination. Eventually, at some point during the long night, or early morning, he fell asleep. It was to be a sleep from which he would not awake.
Tuesday, January 22 started just as any other day for Ledger's housekeeper, 56-year-old Teresa Solomon. Every Tuesday she'd visit his apartment to clean up after the messy actor. Ledger had been living like any other single man, and he wasn't the neatest of people at the best of times. Solomon would let herself in with her key and set about cleaning the apartment, whether Ledger was in or not.
She arrived at about 12.30pm and found a note stuck to the fridge door. Heath's handwritten scrawl warned her that he'd booked a masseuse to visit at 3pm. The first item on the agenda was to change a lightbulb in the bathroom next to Ledger's bedroom. According to CNN and Associated Press reports, Solomon claimed she saw the actor in bed and heard him snoring quietly. "I didn't think anything was wrong; I thought he was sleeping."
At 2.45pm, 40-year-old masseuse Diana Lee Wolozin arrived, slightly early for her 3pm appointment. By 3.10pm, she was concerned that her client had not woken, so she called him on his mobile phone, hoping to rouse him, and followed this by knocking loudly on his bedroom door. There was no response. Wolozin entered the bedroom, noting that Ledger seemed to be still asleep, and began setting up her massage table, failing to realise there was anything wrong with the actor.
Ready to begin, Wolozin attempted to physically rouse Ledger, but his body was cold to the touch. Finally realising that something was seriously wrong, Wolozin decided to call for help. Rather than dial 911 for the emergency services, the befuddled masseuse called Heath's latest friend, 28-year-old Mary-Kate Olsen, using his own mobile, claiming she "wanted to avoid a media circus". However, Olsen was in California, so there was little she could do.
Wolozin made two calls to Olsen between 3.17pm and 3.20pm; in the second one she expressed her fear that Ledger might be dead and said she was going to call 911, which she did at 3.26pm, but only after a third call to Olsen at 3.24pm.
Within seven minutes, New York Fire Department paramedics were in the building, joined by Olsen's security team who arrived around the same time. The paramedics banned the security team from entering Heath's apartment while they went to work. They discovered Ledger's naked body under a bedsheet. Nearby were several prescription pill bottles and a rolled-up $20 note. While the paramedics worked, Wolozin once again called Olsen at 3.34pm, keeping her up-to-date with developments. The paramedics moved the actor's body to the floor in their attempts to revive him. By the time NYPD officers arrived minutes later, Heath Ledger had been formally declared dead at 3.36pm.
As the police investigated the apartment, looking for any clues that might explain the death, they discovered six types of medication, including two prescribed to treat anxiety, another two for insomnia and two types of painkiller. Three of the medications had been prescribed in Europe, and it was unlikely that any of the doctors involved had been able to compare notes about what Ledger was already taking. No illegal drugs were found and there was no evidence that Ledger had been drinking alcohol.
As Heath's body was being removed from the apartment at 6.28pm, news of the actor's death had spread far and wide. Thanks to the worldwide reach of the internet and the hungry needs of the 24/7 news cycle, the brief police statement issued about the actor's demise had reached almost every corner of the world. TV crews were waiting to film the body being removed, and a crowd of about 800 people stood outside in the cold, many with camera phones, striving to capture the moment.
- This is an edited extract from Heath Ledger: Hollywood's Dark Star (Hardie Grant Books, $32.95 by Brian J. Robb). On sale now.
Matilda led a merry waltz
Heath Ledger sprang a surprise in his will - leaving everything he owned to his parents and sister and not his beloved daughter.
The 28-year-old actor filed the will in 2003 - before his relationship with actress Michelle Williams and the 2005 birth of their daughter Matilda Rose.
Although two of Ledger's uncles publicly insinuated that the child wouldn't receive her rightful inheritance, her paternal grandfather confirmed just last month that Matilda, who turns 3 on October 28, has now been gifted Ledger's entire estate.
Although he had a $10 million life insurance policy, Oscar nominee Ledger had less than $145,000 (NZ$182,000) in New York assets at the time of his death, including a $25,000 ($31,000) Toyota Prius and $20,000 ($25,000) in furniture and fixtures.
In a huge corporate relations blunder, ReliaStar Insurance has baulked at the prospect of paying out the life insurance policy to toddler Matilda.
Despite a New York Coroner's report which concluded the actor's drug overdose was accidental, representatives of ReliaStar are seeking to void the policy on the grounds that his death was "suspicious" - possibly suicide, which would nullify the policy.
They have also hinted that Ledger may not have been forthcoming with regard to information he provided when he applied for the policy.
In August, the estate's trustee, lawyer John LaViolette, filed suit, claiming ReliaStar had acted in bad faith by not promptly paying the $10 million and by wrongfully prying into Ledger's life after his death. Lawyers for Matilda have said they believe the insurance company is trying to scare and shame the family into submission. They believe ReliaStar is trying to drag the process out, for what could be years, to avoid payment.
However, if the suit is successful Matilda could also win punitive damages of up to US$50 million - which she would receive when she turned 18 in 2023.
