Heath Ledger's father said his son's death by accidental overdose will be an enduring agony for the family and should serve as a warning to others not to mix prescription drugs.
The New York City medical examiner announced on Wednesday that the 28-year-old Brokeback Mountain star died from the effects of taking six types of painkillers and sedatives. His body was found on Jan. 22 in his Manhattan apartment.
Ledger's premature death promoted outpourings of grief from New York to Hollywood to his hometown of Perth, a small and remote city on the verge of the Outback in Australia's southwest.
Family members returned home from the US this week and were reportedly planning a private service to lay Ledger to rest. His former girlfriend, Michelle Williams, and the couple's two-year-old daughter Matilda arrived on Wednesday to attend the ceremony, News Ltd newspapers said.
The West Australian newspaper reported yesterday that the family was hoping to hold a wake tomorrow at a colonial-style waterfront restaurant at Cottesloe Beach, a resort village south of Perth that was a favorite spot of the actor's.
Kim Ledger, the actor's father, said in a statement released on Wednesday that the family was humbled to be "among millions of people worldwide who may have suffered the tragic loss of a child.''
"Few can understand the hollow, wrenching and enduring agony parents silently suffer when a child predeceases them," he said.
He said the toxicology results should "put an end to speculation'' about the cause of death.
"While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy," he said. "Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."
Family members attended a memorial ceremony in Los Angeles last weekend, but the funeral arrangements have been kept a closely guarded secret.
Among those reportedly due to attend are Ledger's Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gylenhaal and a former girlfriend, Australian model Gemma Ward.
Two bouquets of red orchids were delivered yesterday to the Perth home of Ledger's mother, Sally Ledger-Bell, where relatives have been keeping a low profile since their return from the US.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS