The Joker won't be back for the third new batman movie

[Recoil]

Mainly because Heath Ledger was found dead today.

Looks to be drug related. Always sad to see that happen to anyone, especially to people who appear to have success and a career. Still, I wouldn't have picked him to join the ranks of River Phoenix and others. He isn't the first, and he won't be the last.

 

[vacantlook]

Just for the sake of collation, Markas has a thread on this in the News, politics, and rants forum.

It's unbelievable and so very sad.

 

[Recoil]

Ah. Well there are many people who never set foot in that forum (myself included), and putting it in this forum wasn't necessarily off topic, since he falls into the "Non-B5 TV and Movies," and serves those who wouldn't see it in the News forum.

And I beg to differ. The sad part is that this isn't unbelievable at all.

 

[vacantlook]

I never said it was off-topic. I very explicitly said I was collating: I was putting the link to the other thread in this thread so that anyone reading this who wanted to read the comments in the other thread could easily access that thread by clicking on the link.

And congratulations to you for this being not unbelievable. For me, and others, it is.

 

[Recoil]

It doesn't warrant congratulations, but how can you be surprised that this isn't unbelievable? How many names do you want me to paste of young talented Hollywood actors and actresses who have ended their own lives (not always intentionally) due to depression and/or drug related activities? I just can't be surprised by this anymore, that's all.

 

[vacantlook]

If he had some big list of known drug usage or self-destructive behaviors, it wouldn't be much surprising. But I've never heard of Heath being a drug addict. That's why it surprises me.

 

[Markas]

I've heard that his take on the Joker was going to be quite different than Nicholson's. It's too bad that this happened to such a young and talented actor. It was apparently sleeping pills of some sort, or so I've read. He also was apparently having a hard time sleeping, so perhaps it was an accident.

 

[Alluveal]

I was very surprised. He had so much left in him. Loved him (repeat LOVED him) in Ned Kelly. Awesome flick. It will be haunting to watch him in Batman.

 

[hypatia]

Usually sleeping pill overdoses involve the victim taking something else (especially alcohol) with it, right? Although I have heard of people getting "groggy" and simply forgetting if they took a pill yet, and perhaps how many they have taken.

I took twice the prescribed dosage of sleeping pills just a few days ago. :O
But it was over a period of about 4 or 5 hours, when my Restless Leg Syndrome and pain just kept me up. And I felt great the next day. that's how light my prescription is.

He may have had a strong prescription, mixed it with other things (like over-the-counter sleeping pills), and lost track of what he'd taken. Or, he did it "on purpose/as a cry for help" and he was just too darned good at it. there is a way to do pills and ... well, not get a second chance most likely.

It's always a shame to see the young go like that. It's always a shame, but doubly so when someone seems to be on a real up-turn in life.

 

[Alluveal]

From a NYTimes Article written 2 months ago:

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

Sounds like one pill wasn't working for him (or working fast enough?) so he took another and passed out. In regard to his death, maybe he did forget he took one and took two or such. He was found with both prescription and non-prescription sleeping aids, so my guess is that he just wanted to get some sleep and took too many or the wrong combination of things.

 

[hypatia]

I'd wait for the autopsy report. Seriously, most fairly healthy people dont' die from a sleepign pill overdose, alone. They'll have to find out a lot before concluding that. Did he have alcohol or some other non-sleeping-pill drug in his system that reacted with the pills? Did he have an undiagnosed medical condition (like in the heart, which as we know takes a lot of people far too early in life).

But if it did turn out to be losing track of your sleeping pills, and that alone which killed him: wow, how I hope his family eventually can get past the pain and use this horrible tragedy to educate others.

Sometimes when a situation is shitty, but was preventable, that kind of thing can do a lot of good. Especially for kids and younger adults, who might not honestly take prescribed dosages very seriously. A lot of us don't always do this, including myself. But it is fucking DANGEROUS, even when it seems innocent. Especially with medicine you are inclined to forget that you took. Double-especially if you are like a friend of mine who absolutely insisted she always had to have at least double the prescribed dose, for anything to work. She was disabled, and at the time very ill with difficulty breathing.

Well, she's dead now, because her caretakers both gave her that double-dose while she was in reality suffering from pneumonia. Not overdosing might have led her to the hospital, which is the one place her life could have been saved.

So forgive me if I'm fucking pissed at this, though I never saw the young man's work we are discussing here. But people just need to learn (before it becomes a life-taking habit) that drugs aren't to be fucked with. I'm learning a lot on a personal level about what not to fuck with in the extreme, especially long-term. And more and more it makes my head spin what we consider legal versus illegal.

So, I guess I'm saying to honor the man. No matter what happened, let people know about it, especially younger people who may not yet be established in their life-shortening habits. You don't have to be a gossip-magazine regular cover to die from an overdose.

 

[Recoil]

Good point. Sleeping pills have always freaked me out and I never take them. The one exception was several months ago I had a pretty bad allergic reaction to something and broke out in this rash which covered most of me (yea, I know, TMI) and the doctor said I needed to take a sleeping pill (special prescription) so I wouldn't itch myself subconsciously in my sleep. The stuff worked, knocked me out cold, and in a few days I was back to normal --- still never touched the stuff again even if I had a bit of insomnia. I just don't trust the stuff.

I realize most of it is very safe in normal doses. Most of the accidents you hear about are when it is combined with alcohol (like the Bad Company song) or other "recreational drugs" but still, they need to be taken seriously.

 

[Alluveal]

Apparently, he was also recovering from pneumonia. So, add that to it. And I'm pissed as well. We have this trailer trash mistake of a human being named Britney Spears who goes out of her way to get press and glorifies her own drug use/bad mothering skills and so forth, and the press just eat it up with a spoon. Then you have a guy who pretty much stays out of the press and makes great movies and might have had some issues with drug use (but apparently has been trying to clean up for his daughter's sake) and he ends up like this. It just sickens me.

 

[hypatia]

Apparently, he was also recovering from pneumonia. So, add that to it.

I wonder if there is something particularly dangerous about pneumonia and sleeping pills. Perhaps you don't wake up to cough the fluid up.

Before we go whipping any of the women-out-of-control-in-Hollyweird, let's do recall there are whole armies of men who got some wild press for their wild, alcohol/drug/sex/whatever antics.

Let's not judge the women any harder than the men, just because they can give birth.

Though, obviously, doing so is a lousy idea when your life is falling apart in a haze. But it is ironic that many years ago people read with relish and humor the "antics" of those crazy famous film men, who just always seemed to be getting into some kind of trouble.

It's not like it's just Britney, you know. She's probably not even the most recent person to fall down that rather common trap in that profession/with that lifestyle.

 

[Alluveal]

I'm not just whipping on women, I'm whipping specifically on Britney. I'd rather not throw her in to the "woman" category because it makes me ashamed for my gender on so many levels.

 

[hypatia]

Oh, what an excellent point you make.

 

[Recoil]

Not to go too far off subject, but you know what strikes me as funny/ironic/unpredictable? K-Fed is the one who got FULL custody of their kids! What does that say about Britney?!?!?! It is HARD for the father to get full custody of the kids. Nevermind the fact that this is a guy who was globally made fun of as being a complete loser and degenerate. Nicknamed "Cletus." Yet...HE got custody of the kids over Britney. Man, that has to be the ultimate sign of how low you have sunk....

Side note: How would you like to be the judge that made THAT ruling? Could you do it with a straight face? With a clear conscience? What kind of place do you have to be in where you rule that a guy like K-Fed gets full custody of children, even if it is over Britney? Man, that orphanage system is starting to look better and better...

 

[fisheggs]

I saw/heard the news with a friend and we both said "What!!!" at the same moment. Incrediably sad news indeed. I look foreward to his interpretation of "The Joker" though it will be bittersweet. Suffering myself at times the curse of imsomnia, I can appreciate the use of drugs to allieviate the suffering, I generally stick to beer.

In a perverse way, I'm glad it seems to be an accident instead of a deleberate action.



Stupid Kids!, Stupid Doctors.

 

[Alluveal]

It's going to be very bittersweet. Almost like watching Brandon Lee in The Crow.

As for K-Fed and Britney....

K-Fed is the one who got FULL custody of their kids! What does that say about Britney?!?!?!

Geesh, no kidding. That's just scary.

 

[KoshFan]

Britney's situation is rather tragic, really.

I'll confess that when I heard about Ledger, though, my first thought was, "How's this going to affect Batman?"

Weird Fact about the case: apparently Ledger's body was discovered by a massage therapist, who thought he was just passed out. She then used his cell phone to call Mary-Kate Olsen for advice; Mary-Kate sent over her private security. The massage therapist then realized Ledger wasn't breathing and called the police, who arrived about the same time as the the Olsen security people.

Celebs live in a rather different world...