Taiwanese director Ang Lee (
Ledger costarred with Jake Gyllenhaal in Lee's Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain.
He played Ennis Del Mar in the story about two lonely ranch hands who carried on a secret love affair.
"Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life. He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined -- a thirst for life, for love, and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death is heartbreaking," Lee said in an e-mail.
Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain earned him a best actor Oscar nomination. Lee won the best director award for the film.
Sleeping pills
The 28-year-old actor was found dead on Tuesday by his housekeeper and masseuse in New York City -- lying naked and face-down at the foot of his bed, with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.
The cause of his death will not be known for several days after a preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, authorities said.
Six different types of prescription drugs were found in Ledger's apartment.
They included anti-anxiety medications and an antihistamine, said two law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the investigation is still in train.
A rolled-up US$20 bill was also found on the floor near the actor's bed, but lab tests detected no traces of drug residue, officials said on Wednesday.
Police also said that no illegal drugs were found in Ledger's apartment.
Police said Ledger probably died on Tuesday between 1pm and 2:45pm.
At 1pm, the housekeeper went into his bedroom to change a light bulb, saw him sleeping and heard him snoring.
At 2:45pm, the massage therapist showed up for Ledger's appointment, knocked on his door and got no answer. She later noticed Ledger was unconscious and called for help.
`Dark Knight'
Playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight may be Ledger's final finished performance.
He said in a November interview that his roles in Dark Knight and I'm Not There took a toll.
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."
A day after Ledger's death, at least six TV satellite trucks were parked on the block or around the corner from his Manhattan apartment, with a stream of TV reporters doing their standup coverage.
There were bouquets, letters and candles piled in front of the building.
‘UNFRIENDLY’: Changing the nationality listing of Taiwanese residents to ‘China’ goes against EU foreign policy as well as democratic and human rights principles, MOFA said Taiwan yesterday called on Denmark to correct its designation of the nationality of Taiwanese residents as “China” or face retaliatory measures. The Danish government in 2024 changed the nationality of Taiwanese citizens on their residence permits from “Taiwan” to “China.” The decision goes against EU foreign policy and contravenes democratic and human rights principles, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said. Denmark should present a solution acceptable to Taiwan as soon as possible and correct the erroneous designation to preserve the longstanding friendship between the two nations, Hsiao said. The issue could damage Denmark’s image and business reputation in Taiwan,
Taiwan climbed to its highest position in global export rankings in more than three decades last year, buoyed by demand linked to artificial intelligence (AI) that lifted shipments of semiconductors and technology products, Ministry of Finance data released yesterday showed. Taiwan accounted for 2.4 percent of global exports last year, or about US$640 billion, ranking 12th worldwide, the data showed. That was up four places from a year earlier and marked the nation’s best ranking since 1994, the ministry said. Taiwan’s share of global exports rose by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, the largest increase among major economies, reflecting the nation’s
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS