Heath Ledger's final days as scruffy loner

FAR away from the idolised lifestyle of a Hollywood star, tragic Australian actor Heath Ledger lived out his final days as a scruffy loner.

Drifting between acting gigs and fleeting visits from his beloved daughter Matilda, Ledger would wonder the Manhattan cobblestone streets alone, usually wearing ragged jeans, an old jacket and an unshaven chin.

When he returned to the SoHo apartment he rented for $26, 000 a month, a forlorn sight greeted him.

Apart from a few ornamental skateboards, the flat was more or less unfurnished.

Ledger slept on a mattress on the floor, sleeping pills beside his makeshift bed.

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"I didn't know he was an actor," said Camile Angelo, the host at the Grotta Azzurra Ristorante, where Ledger often ate breakfast. "He was always the first customer. He was always here alone."

Ledger moved to a SoHo loft from Brooklyn last year after splitting with girlfriend Michelle Williams.
On the rebound, a heartbroken Heath quickly became linked to a slew of starlets and models, including Mary-Kate Olsen.

But when Angelo saw the Brokeback Mountain star last Thursday, he had only his cell phone and iPod for company.

"I told him to stop text messaging because his steak and eggs were getting cold," Angelo said in an interview with New York Daily News. "He smiled."

Liz Bullis, sales manager of Gourmet Garage, said she sometimes saw Ledger with his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda.

"He's usually very scruffy," Bullis said.

The Miro Cafe on Broadway was another Ledger haunt. Once again, the unfailingly polite young man gave no inkling he was somebody special.

"We were surprised, we never knew he was an actor," manager Max Barrsi said. "He was practically here all the time for coffee . . . always very nice with us."



Lonely ... Heath Ledger spent his last days alive in solitude.

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Heath's final homecoming

Lucy Carne and Stefanie Balogh
January 27, 2008 12:00am

GRIEF-stricken family and friends of Heath Ledger vowed to give his two-year-old daughter Matilda the "beautiful life" he had planned for her, as the body of the 28-year-old Australian actor last night began a sad final journey to his home in Perth.

Tears flowed as his parents, Kim and Sally, and his older sister, Kate, arrived in Los Angeles yesterday to await the arrival of the casket carrying his body.
Ledger's body was dressed in a black suit before being placed in a simple wooden box for transport from New York, where he lived, back home to Australia via LA.

Actor Abbie Cornish, who starred opposite Ledger in the movie Candy and remained a close friend, accompanied the family to the US for the grim task of bringing the body home after he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment from a suspected drug overdose on Wednesday.

The funeral is expected to be held in Perth this week, but details have not been released. There also was speculation yesterday of a public memorial service in LA within the next few days, likely to be attended by many of Ledger's Hollywood A-list friends.

As Ledger's body was being placed in a hearse outside the funeral parlour on New York's East Side, his gorgeous daughter was less than 10km away in Brooklyn.

Toddler Matilda, who's tender age has protected her from fully understanding that she has lost her father, was being shielded by her actor mother Michelle Williams, who was engaged to Ledger until the relationship ended six months ago.

Matilda and Michelle were "the two true loves" of Ledger's life, friends said last night.

"He adored Matilda, and when Michelle called it quits, he missed Matilda so much that he was thrown into a deep, dark depression," a source said.

Heath was living in New York to be close to his daughter. He wanted to give her a beautiful life, a family friend said.

Ledger was determined to be a good father to Matilda, the friend said, and was regularly seen walking with her on the streets of SoHo, the trendy neighbourhood where he lived.

He regularly showered her with toys and gifts from chic stores in the area and dressed her in bright designer outfits.

It is not known if Ledger left a will, but family sources say he had set up a trust for Matilda. His estate is estimated by Hollywood insiders to be worth more than $A30 million thanks to his successful 12-year, 15-film career.

He also is thought to have invested wisely in property in Australia and overseas and had a financial interests in several businesses, including an LA-based record label.

After getting a reported $A113,000 for teen flick 10 Things I Hate About You, Ledger is understood to have received an eight-figure sum for his last completed role as The Joker in new Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight.

In addition to his Manhattan loft and the Brooklyn house where Michelle and Matilda live, Ledger owned a prestige home in the Hollywood Hills that he bought from television host Ellen Degeneres and her Australian actor partner Portia De Rossi in 2006 for $A2.6 million.

The house was deserted yesterday though several fans stopped by to add flowers to a makeshift shrine at the gates.

It is not known if Michelle and Matilda will travel to Perth for the funeral, but Ledger's heartbroken family has pledged unwavering support for the little girl wherever she grows up.

"Your true legacy lives on in beautiful little Matilda, who will always remain in the greatest of care," the Ledger family wrote in a death notice.

As Matilda grows up, she also will have the comfort and support of a loyal and protective circle of Hollywood friends.

Her godfather, Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred alongside Ledger in the award-winning movie Brokeback Mountain, has vowed to help her keep her father's memory alive.

He said it was "an amazing honour" to be her godfather.

It is believed Gyllenhaal has told friends he has a "duty" to Ledger now to do all he can to help the two-year-old.

Williams' former Dawsons Creek co-star, Busy Phillips, is Matilda's godmother and was one of the first people to meet Williams when she rushed from Sweden to New York after learning of Ledger's death.

Meanwhile, Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith – who is in New York for meetings at the United Nations headquarters – said he was satisfied about the handling of the inquiry into Ledger's death by US authorities.

The authorities said they would not make a final determination on the cause opf Ledger's death until toxicology tests are completed.

Additional reporting by Peta Hellard in Los Angeles



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Heath Ledger's death may have been natural

Sources claim that the level of drugs in Heath Ledger's system was too low to cause his death


By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles and Martina Smit
Last Updated: 10:54am GMT 28/01/2008

Heath Ledger may have died from natural causes, not a drug overdose, because the amount of drugs in his system was too low to have killed him, it has been reported.

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TMZ, the celebrity website that broke the news of the actor's death last Tuesday, quoted sources "intimately connected with the investigation" saying that the 28-year-old may have died from a heart attack.

"It's now appearing that the level of toxicity (from medication) in Ledger's system was low enough that it may not have caused his death. These sources say Heath's heart stopped," the website reported.

Initial tests on the body of the star of Brokeback Mountain proved inconclusive, but Ledger's family has insisted that he would not have taken his own life.

In an article published yesterday, Sarah Lyall, who conducted the last interview with the actor in November, said Ledger "did not seem depressed, or suicidal or whacked out from drugs" when they met.

"What he seemed was exhausted," Lyall told the Observer. "It looked to me like the sort of fatigue you get not from being tired of life, but from being too full of it - too full of plans, too full of self-analysis, too full of noisy thoughts that won't stay quiet."

The actress Naomi Watts, Ledger's former girlfriend, was reported to have visited the Los Angeles mortuary where his body was being kept. She was also said to have joined Ledger's family and friends in a private memorial ceremony.

His body was expected to be flown to Australia today, where it was thought that a funeral would be held in Perth, his home city.

On Saturday evening a moving tribute by Ledger's father, Kim, in which he remembered his son riding a skateboard through the streets of New York, was read out during an Australian ball at the city's Waldorf Astoria hotel.

"Heath did not become an actor for the fame or fortune," Mr Ledger wrote of his son.

"He loved his craft and he loved helping his friends. He loved chess and skateboarding too. My image of Heath in New York is him with his skateboard, a canvas bag and his beanie. "

"That was Heath to me."

An iconic photo of Ledger, smiling and leaning back in a cowboy hat in Brokeback Mountain, was projected onto a screen as Australia's consul-general to the US, John Olsen, read out the tribute.

"Heath is, and always will be, an Australian," wrote Mr Ledger, who flew to America to escort his son's body back to Perth. "He adored his home. His last two weeks with us over Christmas in Perth were just bliss."

Earlier Daniel Day-Lewis, the British actor, interrupted Oprah Winfrey on her celebrity talk show to pay tribute to Ledger.

Fighting back tears, the 50-year-old Oscar hopeful said he had "marvelled" at Ledger's work. At the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, Robert Redford, the veteran actor, talked about the impact of Ledger's death, comparing it to the shock caused by the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

"That's too young to check out. It was a shock," Redford said.

He described Ledger as "one of those actors who was very, very special because he played so many different kinds of roles".

Last night Day-Lewis also dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in "There Will Be Blood" to Ledger.

"In Brokeback Mountain he was unique, he was perfect," Day-Lewis said. "That scene in the trailer at the end of the film is as moving as anything I think I've ever seen."

Backstage, Day-Lewis said he never met Ledger but the actor's death was all he had been thinking about recently.

"I thought he was beautiful. I just had a very strong feeling I would have liked him very much as a man," he said. "I admired him very much. I'm absolutely certain he would have done many wonderful things in his life."

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Michelle Williams: My heart is broken over Heath Ledger

Michelle on Heath

If Mary Kate Olsen

knows nothing about what happened to Heath Ledger, why is she demanding immunity before she will talk to investigators?