Dakota Bailey

Dakota Bailey

English 11

Ms. Freestone

B3

Heath Ledger

An Australian Actor born on April 1979, Perth, Western Australia and Died on January 22 2008, Manhattan, New York City from an accidental prescription pills overdose. Heath Andrew Ledger died in a apartment in Lower Manhattan. What led an Oscar-nominated Australian actor to die from accidental prescription pills death. The reason why I chose this character cause I like this person acting and he was kind of an inspiration to do what he wants, to start from the bottom and become whatever you want to be later on in life. The announcement of Heath Ledger death was on CNN on January 22,2008. The police went into Ledgers apartment and saw prescription pills laying around the room with the deceased actor. His last movie before his death was being the psychopathic clown prince in "The Dark Knight (2008)". Having to received after his death, Ledger was awarded for more than 30 posthumous awards, Oscar, SAG, BAFTA, and Golden Globe Awards.

The first place I looked up Heath ledger death was the new that I first heard of Ledger pass away.(CNN News) It talked about where and what time when Heath Ledger died. That showed the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) confirming Ledger Death and tried to investigate these prescription pills that Ledger took. This case was reported immediately to the media of having a better understanding of this incident. Then the story was put together, with the evidence from witnesses who discovered Heath Ledger pass away.

Two weeks before his death, a house keeper (Teresa Solomon), arrived at Ledger's apartment at 12:30 p.m. From the police reports Teresa said, she saw Ledger lying face down on his bed with a sheet pulled over his shoulders and thought to hear him snoring. Then Masseuse Dianna Wolozin arrived at his apartment at 2:45 p.m., for his massage. Then about 15 minutes later, she came up to his bedroom knowing that his door was still closed. She went inside the room and saw him lying in his bed, so she set up the massage table. She shook Ledger, but there was no response. Wolozin quickly got a cell phone and called an actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a friend of Ledger, that was happen to be in California at the time. Wolozin then told Olsen that Ledger was unconscious and she call private security people in New York. While on the phone with dispatchers, Wolozin tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Ledger, but he was unresponsive. At 3:26 p.m., she called 911 and told the authorities that Ledger was not breathing. The emergency personnel arrived 7 minutes later and the medical technicians performed CPR on Ledger, but their efforts was in vain and was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. Later his former Fiancée, actress Michelle Williams and there 2 year- old daughter with others asked "to grieve privately".

The DEA investigate the prescription pills that Ledger took and they pronounced that they weren't illegal drugs. The authorities found six different types of prescriptions in his apartment. They were pills to treat insomnia and anxiety and three of them were prescribed in Europe. There were Hydrocodone and Oxycodone (painkillers). Valium and Xanax that are anti-anxiety drugs. Then Temazepam and Doxylamine that is a sleeping agent and that can be obtained over the counter as a sleep aid. With these doctors- prescribed drugs as a combination is a very lethal mixer, even at a low dosage. Ledger had talked about his own difficulty of sleeping after back to back roles as Bob Dylan figure in "I'm Not There" and the Joker in " The Dark Knight," that was part of the Batman series that was due to come out the following summer. Ledger told the New York Times in November "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night." "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."(Heath Ledger) Heath Ledger took the sleeping pills for his struggling of having less sleep between his last two movies. He was so exhausted and couldn't even think, so he took the pain killers to help with mental and physical ways. But all six of these medications are very lethal and he will be missed.

The articles for the case of Heath Ledger day of death was reported by the CNN News "Ledger's death caused by accidental overdose". This brought information of the six different prescription pills. NBC News had the police report "Police: Masseuse call Olsen twin before 911", that had quotes from the real witnesses of the discovery of Heath Ledgers death at the scene. To look up the meaning for the sleeping pill, anti anxiety pills and painkillers was on Helpguide.org, that had expert resources to resolve health challenges. Heath ledger had several published books like "The Heath Ledger Handbook - Everything you need to know about Heath Ledger" is a book that has articles about him and all the movies that he acted in. Another published book is "Heath Ledger Hollywood's Dark Star" is the definitive story of a 21 year old young man(Heath Ledger), who started as a young Australian, that soon became an Hollywood star, with his own compelling hard work on the his journey to be on top. There was the last interview with Heath Ledger, before he died, "FHM's Interview with Heath Ledger on Playing the Joker" by Kevin Power July 18, 2008, Source FHM. This magazine interview talked about Health Ledger love for being the Joker from the movie "The Dark Knight" (2008), and talked about him being on the set and how he gets into his character. And the last thing they talk about with Heath Ledger is being nominated for the Actor Oscar. After his death, with the release of "The Dark Knight", his family received the Oscar Award for 2008 for Heath Ledger.