Why did Heath Ledger have to die? Was he the sacrificial redeemer for our sins? Did he lose faith in getting back to Brokeback Mountain? Was it the prospect of an amendment against same-sex marriage that brought about his unfortunate demise?
I don’t understand why someone who’s slept with so many beautiful women would want to off himself. Man, Heath lacked gratitutde. If I spent one night with Naomi Watts, I’d be good for life. I’d never seek any other blessing. I’d just live off my memories, secure in my belief in an all-powerful, all-beneficent deity.
HEATH Ledger joins a long list of Hollywood stars who died of a drug overdose at a young age.
Actor River Phoenix died of a drug-induced heart failure in 1993 at the age of 23, after taking a mix of heroin and cocaine in Johnny Depp’s Hollywood night club, The Viper Room.
The star of The Blues Brothers, John Belushi, died in 1982 after overdosing on a cocktail of heroin, cocaine and speed.
He was found dead, aged 33, in his room at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles.
Sixties “it girl” Edie Sedgwick, who featured in several Andy Warhol films, died in 1971 at the age of 28 with a mix of barbiturates and alcohol in her stomach.
Sedgwick was recently the subject or a recent film biography, “Factory Girl”.
Many other Hollywood actors have died at a young age, including:
– Iconic film actor James Byron Dean died at age 24 in a head-on car crash in 1955.
– Martial arts expert and film star Bruce Lee died aged 32 of a cerebral oedema in 1973. His son Brandon, who starred in The Crow, was shot dead at the age of 28 in an accident while filming on a movie set.
– In 1925 Italian actor and “Latin Lover” Rudolph Valentino died aged 31 not long after collapsing with a perforated ulcer at the Hotel Ambassador in New York.
Other actors who died young include Jayne Mansfield (34), Marilyn Monroe (36), Natalie Wood (43) and Montgomery Clift (45).
