Heath Ledger found dead in New York apartment

ACTOR Heath Ledger was sick with pneumonia when he died, TMZ.com has reported. The 28-year-old was found dead this morning in a New York apartment.
The Perth-born actor was discovered naked and surrounded by pills about 3.30pm Tuesday local time (7.30am Melbourne time). His body has been removed from his New York apartment and wheeled into the back of a medical examiner's van. A huge crowd of news photographers gathered outside the apartment in the Soho building lit up the scene with flashes as authorities wheeled his body on a trolley from the complex into the van. New York police officer Martin Brown said investigators will likely not know the cause of death until an autopsy is held on the 28-year-old's body. Asked if foul play had been ruled out, Officer Brown said it had not. "That's what needs to be investigated," Brown said. "It takes a while.
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"The medical examiner will do an autopsy and they will determine the cause of death." ..pe Ledger's body was discovered by his housekeeper, who came to tell him his masseuse had arrived for an appointment. They entered his room and found him unconscious. "It's all preliminary at this stage," Brown said. "We had a call for an unconscious male at 421 Broome St. "At 15.26 (New York time) we got to the scene and there was an unconscious male. "We called EMS (ambulance) to the scene and EMS pronounced the unconscious male dead."Police officers today stood guard at the Soho apartment building as a crowd of photographers gathered outside. Asked about reports of the pills in Ledger's apartment, Brown said: "I can't confirm that but I've heard the same thing.'' Police initially said they believed the apartment to belong to American actress Mary-Kate Olsen, 21, who is believed to be in Los Angeles. A US website more recently reported that a "source close to Ledger" had denied the apartment belonged to Olsen. It is not yet clear why Ledger was staying in the apartment or how long he had been there.When the masseuse arrived, the apartment housekeeper knocked at Ledger's door to tell him but there was no response. The housekeeper and masseuse went into Ledger's bedroom and found him naked and unconscious in bed. They tried to revive him but with no success, and immediately called the authorities.
When paramedics responded, the actor was in full cardiac arrest. They attempted to perform CPR on him but were unsuccessful.
Ledger was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ledger was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Brokeback Mountain and had numerous other screen credits.
He stars in the coming The Dark Knight Batman movie as the Joker, and also in the Oscar-nominated biopic I'm Not There, taking one of the roles of Bob Dylan.His death comes during the making of his latest movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam and in which he was to star alongside Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits.One of Ledger's most criticallyacclaimed roles was as a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian movie Candy, in which he starred with Australian Abbie Cornish. He split from his partner, Michelle Williams, with whom he has a daughter, in September 2007.

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