Heath Ledger's untimely death - a recap

Australian movie hunk Heath Ledger died at the age of 28 on Tuesday, he was found unresponsive in his New York apartment at 3:30 p.m. U.S. time.

*He was found naked and unconscious in his bed by his maid, with his room, with sleeping pills strewn around him.

*He was reportedly found at an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen, this was later proved to be not true, and in fact, it turned out that Heath's masseuse called the bodyguard for the Olsens - because they're friends and he's an EMT. The bodyguard was around the block at Ashley's and he immediately went over. By the time he arrived, the cops were already there.

*Heath's death was an accident, according to his family who released this statement saying: "Heath's family confirms the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda.

"He was found peacefully asleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3:30 p.m. U.S. time.

"We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their well wishes and kind thoughts at this time. "Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him.

"He was a down to earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and selfless individual who was extremely inspirational to many.

"Please now respect our families need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately."

*Heath's friends then revealed that they "saw his death coming," revealing: "This is terrible and I'm in shock," a close friend of Ledger's told Us Weekly. "But to tell you the truth... we saw it coming."

"Heath has gone though a rough road of trying to get sober," adds the source.

"Things were very dark," the source says. "His one joy was Matilda."

* Lindsay Lohan was reportedly left devastated when she found out about Heath's untimely death. The two were "very close" for some time.

*Michelle Williams was left devastated" by the death of her former fiancé. Sources told TMZ that "words cannot describe" the pain she is in over the news about the father of her child, Matilda Rose.

Sources say she jumped on plane headed to New York yesterday.

* A host of stars, including Mel Gibson, John Travolta and Nicole Kidman expressed their shock at the actor's death.

"I had such great hope for him," says Mel Gibson, a fellow Australian. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."

Travolta said: "He is one of my favorite actors. His abilities are rare... it's a tremendous loss.

"It's hard to be here celebrating Australia under these circumstances."

Nicole Kidman last night paid tribute to Heath Ledger, calling his death: "A tragedy."

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd even issued a statement on the Perth native's passing: "It was with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Heath Ledger," he said. "It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger's diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor."

Ledger began acting in his native Australia when he was given a choice at school between cooking or drama classes.

Born in Perth in 1979, the blonde haired star had to choose one of the two compulsory classes - either cooking or drama and as Ledger could honestly not see himself in a cooking class, he tried his hand at drama.

He fell in love with acting and when he was 17, he and a friend, decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and drive across the country to Sydney.

However, upon arriving in Sydney with a reported 69 cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break.

His first real acting job came in a low budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive clich?; a teen angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl.

A succession of small roles followed, including a tiny part in the popular soap Home and Away before he got his big break in a 1999 movie called Two Hands.

Following the acclaim he got for that movie, he was cast in his first US movie - 10 Things I Hate About You opposite Julia Stiles.

After that, it seemed Ledger was being typecast as a teen hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot in 2000 as Mel Gibson's son.

What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles with Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast.

Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly with Orlando Bloom in 2003 was an absolute flop.

But it was on this movie set that he met Naomi Watts and even though there was nearly a ten year ag e gap the couple began dating.

Ledger's status as a teen hunk was cemented with his role in A Knight's Tale alongside a huge British cast including James Purefoy, Rufus Sewell and Paul Bettany.

Roles in The Order, Lords of Dogtown and The Brother's Grimm alongside Matt Damon followed but it was his Oscar nominated role as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain that really cemented his success in Hollywood.

That pivotal role also saw him fall in love with co-star Michelle Williams and the couple went on to have a daughter together, Mathilda, whose godfather is his Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, before they split last year.

Since then Ledger has starred opposite Sienna Miller in Casanova and Abbie Cornish in Candy.

But it is the role he just finished filming as The Joker in the latest Batman film opposite Christian Bale that had fans really buzzing as he was the first non American to ever play the role.

Despite his career going from strength to strength Ledger always remained a very private actor.

He rarely gave interviews unless they were connected to the latest movie he was promoting and hated speaking about his private life.

So it would surprise many to know that he is one of seven godparents to Elizabeth Hurley's son Damien or that his parents named him after the main character in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

He is also of Irish and Scottish ancestry while most of his wardrobe is designed by his best friend Shem.

He also stayed very close to his roots, living with and constantly staying in touch with another friend and mentor, the Aussie actor Martin Henderson, who appeared in Britney Spears video Toxic.

Ledger was also named by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world in 2007.