U.S. & World

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, and police said drugs may have been a factor. The Australian-born actor was 28.

Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the residence in the tony SoHo neighborhood in New York, police department spokesman Paul Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper went to his bedroom to get Ledger, and found his naked body in the bed at about 3:30 p.m. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead, police said.

Browne said there was no obvious indication of suicide.

A gaggle of paparazzi and gawkers began gathering outside the building, where police put up barricades to control a crowd of about 300 people. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black body bag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a white medical examiner's office van.

As the building door opened, the bystanders snapped pictures with their camera phones and rolled their video. "He's coming out!" some said.

The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," where he met Michelle Williams in 2005. The two had lived in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.

Ledger was set to appear in the next installment of the "Batman" movie opposite Christian Bale as the infamous "Joker" and was in the midst of filming "The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus," reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.

Sources tell WCBS-TV's Scott Weinberger the death may be drug-related and that there were pills scattered around the room.

Ledger told The New York Times in a November interview that he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour, the paper said.

The Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" and also starred in "The Patriot," "Monster's Ball," "A Knight's Tale," "Ned Kelly," "The Order," and "The Brothers Grimm."

Offers for other teen flicks came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, 'You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'"

His latest role was in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan - as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award for the Male Star of Tomorrow based on his performance in "The Patriot," and worldwide release of "A Knight's Tale." In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ's Men of the Year for acting.

Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his Manhattan neighborhood, where he used to shop at a home and children's store.  Michelle Vella, a buyer there, said she had frequently seen Ledger with his daughter -- carrying the 2-year-old on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.

"It's so sad. They were really close," said Vella. "He's a very down to earth guy and an amazing father."

She said Ledger once bought a bookcase at the home store, and purchased stuffed animals and dresses for his daughter at the children's store.

"It's a shock; he's so young," said Taren Dolbashian, who works on the block and also had seen Ledger with his daughter on his shoulders. "He always seems so happy."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 in Perth, in western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films and a starring role in the short-lived Fox TV series "Roar," Ledger moved to Los Angeles and costarred in "10 Things I Hate About You," a teen comedy reworking of "The Taming of the Shrew."

In talking about the Dylan film, Ledger told The New York Times he most admired that the singer was not someone who could be easily explained, saying he felt the same way about himself.

"Some people find their shtick," Ledger said. "I've never figured out who 'Heath Ledger' is on film: 'This is what you expect when you hire me, and it will be recognizable.'"

"People always feel compelled to sum you up, to presume that they have you and can describe you. That's fine. But there are many stories inside of me and a lot I want to achieve outside of one flat note."

The medical examiner's office planned an autopsy on Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

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