Actor Heath Ledger, who played gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in the ground breaking film Brokeback Mountain, was found dead at his Apt. yesterday. This is such sad news. He was only 28. His housekeeper found him face down on the floor unresponsive with a bunch of pills nearby. They do not know yet if his death was from the pills, but it looks that way. They were over-the-counter sleeping medication. He had a  Lower Manhattan apartment.

I saw Brokeback Mountain here in Florida with my two lesbian friends at the Florida film festival. It was a very moving movie, very real with all the pain, bitterness and naked truth. At the time it was controversal. Not because it was a gay movie, but because it dared to go where no one had gone before. Showing two cowboys in love out in the old west, well that was going into macho man territory!

Heath Ledger was born in Perth, Australia. He started acting as a child at a local theater. He was in several movies before Brokeback Mountain. “10 Things I Hate About You” “The Patriot” “A Knight’s Tale” and “Monster’s Ball” was some of his earlier movies. Then came Brokeback Mountain, which earned him an Oscar nomination.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2006 about his love scenes with co-start Jake Gyllenhaal, he said “”We can’t say that we weren’t nervous about it, But once the first take was over, it’s like, ‘OK. So what? It’s kissing another human being. How are we going to finish this scene? Let’s get on with it and let’s get out of here.”

Ledger leaves behind a daughter, Matilda Rose, born in 2005. He had just finished filming the latest Batman movie, in which he plays The Joker. I’m sure he was great in that. Sighh, pills pills pills, no one in the entertainment industry can seem to stay away from those damn pills. Well, who knows what happened, we will know more in the coming days. We do know he was too young to die, and a very fine actor. Heath Ledger, may you rest in peace.