It's really not my place to grieve, but he did his job well enough that I do.

Yes, this.

I'm really upset too and sadden. He was so talented and he was one of the actors that I liked to read about it.

If it is suicide,that's what it sounded like they were hinting at, I hope people don't say cruel things. Sometimes they do, saying oh he was selfish or how could he. Which isn't really cruel, but. I'm so sad for him and Michelle Williams and his little girl.

I think celebrity grieving is a difficult topic. Of course it's strange and offputting for the family to have a whole whack of people grieving that don't know him at all. But with artists, they put so much of themselves out there for us to consume, I think it's natural for us to feel the loss.

Yeah, I was thinking, you know, people die all the time, in worse ways, even younger, and we don't really feel the hit. But with artists...well, you put it very well, thanks.

Yeah, I'm really shaken up. It came out of nowhere. Like JZ, I was expecting to see him in so much more post-Joker. It's crazy.

So much this.

I think it's similar to what happens when politicians die in plane crashes (which they seem to do disturbingly often). People lard their hopes or imaginations into the human figure, and have to mourn the "death" of that imagination as much as they mourn the death of the real person whom they never met.

My coworkers in 2004, who had never even lived in the same state as Paul Wellstone (and thus didn't have direct reasons to lard their hopes into him), flipped their lids when he died.

BTW, he was found in an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen.

[link]

CNN is now reporting that it's a suspected suicide. Also, that it was Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment he was found in.

It's terrible, and heartbreaking.

le nubian's link makes mention of him and Michelle Williams having split up recently, which maybe makes more sense of the situation.

I'm sad... I thought he was one of the people who was going to make it though all the Hollywood BS undamaged.

They split up last year sometime.

About 22,000 or so people die of drug overdoses per year in the US. It raises at about 15% each year. One of the key sources is actually opioid pain killers -- oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and fentanyl, which are legally prescribed pain killers. But can also be taken out of prescription for thrills. The rest is made up of heroin, pretty much.

this may seem callous but I am so mad at Heath Ledger right now. He was filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with Terry Gilliam.