Heath Ledger dead at 28

Heath Ledger's family has reportedly denied he killed himself after the Australian actor was found dead today at his New York apartment in what authorities suspect may be a possible drug-related death. He was 28.
A New York Police Department spokesman said the Oscar-nominated actor's body was found naked and face-down on the floor of his bedroom by a housekeeper about 3.30pm Tuesday (7.30am Melbourne time).
There were prescription pills nearby, police said. ''We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,'' police spokesman Paul Browne said. ''There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.''
The police spokesman said the pills were not scattered around Ledger's body, as previously reported. "There were some prescription medications that included sleeping pills," he said.
Ledger, who had reportedly been ill with pneumonia, had an appointment for a massage at the apartment, which is believed to be his home in Soho in Manhattan.
The housekeeper went to tell Ledger the masseuse had arrived and found him naked and unconscious at the foot of his bed.
Ledger's former fiancee, Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams - the mother of his two-year-daughter Matilda - was reported to be ''devastated'' by his death and had boarded a flight to New York.
Representatives of the actor's family said police had advised them his death was accidental, the TMZ.com website reported.
The site said representatives had made contact to say Ledger's family was particularly distraught over media speculation that he may have taken his own life. He was not that kind of person, the family said.
Ledger's Californian attorney, John LaViolette, could not be contacted this morning.
A spokeswoman at his office said he was currently on a plane."I'm sorry, we can't talk about this now, we're too upset," she said, before ending the phone call.
Ledger's death comes during the making of his latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam and in which he was to star alongside Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits.
Ledger was an Oscar nominee for his role in Brokeback Mountain and had numerous other screen credits.
He played a heroin addict in Candy, the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball and had starring roles in A Knight's Tale and The Patriot.

His most recent role was in I'm Not There, in which he played one of the many incarnations of singer Bob Dylan - as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
He was to appear as the Joker this year in The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins.
Ledger was born in Perth, the son of Sally Ledger Bell and Kim Ledger, a race car driver and mining engineer.
He made his film debut in the 1997 Australian movie Blackrock, and in 1999 starred in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.
In 2005, Ledger received an Oscar nomination for his acclaimed performance in Brokeback Mountain, in which he played a gay ranch hand who had a love affair with a rodeo rider.
Perth casting director Annie Murtagh-Monks discovered Ledger as a15-year-old in a school production of Hamlet.
''He had a natural ability but it wasn't like he was driven to be a star at thatage,'' she told 3AW.
Ledger was cast in the short-lived TV drama Sweat - where he played a young gay cyclist preparing for the Olympics - and his career blossomed from there.
His role as the Joker in The Dark Knight had been difficult, Murtagh-Monks noted.
''I'd heard that he'd had a lot of trouble sleeping from that,'' she said. ''I honestly don't know what's caused this.''
The actor's relationship with the press was turbulent. In 2004 he allegedly spat at a paparazzi photographer in Sydney, a claim that he strongly denied.
In January 2006, several photographers retaliated, squirting Ledger with water pistols as he walked the red carpet for the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain.
Earlier this month Ledger he was linked with West Australian model and actor Gemma Ward.

Sir Edmund Hillary dies age 88

Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today.
He died this morning at the age of 88.
Sir Edmund became the first person to stand on Mt Everest, the world's highest peak, on June 2, 1953 - the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation.
His chance to make his mark in history came when selected for the 1953 British expedition to climb Mt Everest, led by former commando Colonel John Hunt, later Lord Hunt.
On the mountain, the first assault team that tried to reach the 8848m summit was driven back by altitude sickness.
Hillary, who was renowned for his fitness and speed, was chosen along with Sherpa Tenzing to try next.
As he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay descended from the May 29 attempt on the mountain, Hillary told fellow climbers: "We knocked the bastard off."
Clark said today that the passing of Hillary was a profound loss to New Zealand.
"My thoughts are with Lady Hillary, Sir Edmund's children, wider family, and close friends at this sad time," Clark said in a statement.
"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity."

Young, Fit & Gone - Clinton Grybas dies at 32

WHEN Clinton Grybas failed to appear early for yesterday's shift on radio station 3AW his colleagues grew nervous. He was a meticulous man who always turned up to work two hours beforehand. As the midday show went to air without him, his radio producer was almost frantic with worry.
By that time, his body had been found, lying face down on the bedroom floor of his 15th-storey apartment in Southbank. There were no visible injuries and no sign of foul play, police said later. All that remains is the mystery of what killed an apparently healthy young man, due to turn 33 next month, who held the promise of becoming Australia's pre-eminent sporting commentator.
The only clue to yesterday's shock death came the week before last season's AFL qualifying finals. He called in sick one Saturday in September, missing his commentating duties for only the second time in 12 years, after waking with a splitting headache and a nasty bump on his head after sleepwalking in the night.
He laughed off the incident at the time, saying he initially thought he must have been knocked unconscious by night burglars. Graeme Bond, 3AW's football director, wondered yesterday whether the incident was an alarm bell.
"All I can think of is there was some link. Maybe he died from a possible aneurysm and maybe that was a warning. We don't know," he said.
His manager, Ricky Nixon, and his bosses at both 3AW and Fox Sports met police yesterday afternoon to discuss the coming autopsy.
The news has stunned his colleagues and friends. Some of them had last seen Grybas on Friday night, looking tanned, fit, relaxed and happy at a barbecue in Port Melbourne.
His brother, Ashley Grybas, said yesterday his family was devastated.
3AW program director Clark Forbes said his colleagues were in disbelief. "He was the best young bloke, a huge talent with his whole life before him," he said. "He was already one of the best sporting commentators in this country."
AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick praised Grybas as potentially the best sports broadcaster in Australia, saying his death would cause "genuine bereavement at the AFL".
3AW announcer Dwayne Russell, who was due to appear on air with Grybas yesterday, said his colleague had always looked in good health. "He was a broadcaster who really didn't have any ceiling. If anybody was the next Denis Cometti it was probably Clinton," he said.
After starting in his early 20s calling Friday night football on ABC radio, Grybas won the Australian Commercial Radio award for best sports presenter last year. He excelled at every sport he touched, most famously calling the gold medal win of the Australian women's water polo team at the Sydney Olympics.
Recently he had told Fox Sports co-host Gerard Healy that he hoped to call future Olympic Games. "He was extraordinary, simply because he never had a bad day, he was meticulous in every aspect of his life," Healy said. "I used to have to tie a Windsor knot for him before every show — that was the only chink I ever saw in his armour."
Laurenna Toulmin, a former 3AW producer, was in Ballarat with family when the call came from the station that her long-time boyfriend had not shown for work. She called their Southbank neighbours, and a building manager unlocked the couple's apartment to find Grybas on the floor. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead.