January 22, 2008: Heath Ledger Dies

January 22, 2008: Heath Ledger dies in New York, of an accidental overdose of a combination of pain medications. The actor was 28 years old.

Born on April 4, 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, Heath Andrew Ledger was already making movies in America while still a teenager. He appeared in 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, A Knights Tale (his first starring role, in 2001) and Monster's Ball. He dated actresses Lisa Zane, Heather Graham and Naomi Watts.

In 2005, he played Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, a story of two cowboys who have to hide their gay affair in the 1960s and '70s. The role raised him to the top tier of actors in his generation, and also introduced him to actress Michelle Williams. They were together for 3 years, and had a daughter, Matilda, in 2005.

In 2006, he was cast as supervillain the Joker in Christopher Nolan's Batman film sequel The Dark Knight. Jack Nicholson, who had played the character in Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman, warned him against taking the role, saying it was a very stressful role to play.

Ledger took it, and while the buzz about how good he was in the role got out well before the film's release, it certainly didn't help his private life: Williams said he'd had trouble sleeping for as long as she'd known him, due to respiratory issues that he couldn't shake, and his pill intake increased, leading to their breakup.

After finishing The Dark Knight, Ledger finished 1 more film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and had begun dating actress Gemma Ward.

But his breathing and sleeping issues, and his drug intake, combined to catch up with him, and led to the fatal mistake of his overdose. He received a posthumous Academy Award for playing the Joker. His death prevented him from appearing in the last film in Nolan's trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises -- and any other movie in which he might have appeared. As with every creative artist gone too soon, the tragedy is that the people who loved him lost him, but the crime is that we'll never know what they would have gone on to do.

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January 22, 2008 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was awaiting the result of Super Bowl XLII, which would be the New York Giants over the New England Patriots. There were 2 NBA games played on this day. The New Jersey Nets lost to the Sacramento Kings, 128-94 at the ARCO Arena (now the Sleep Train Arena) in Sacramento. And the Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-105 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Steve Nash scored 37 points for the Suns.

There were 11 games played in the NHL: 

* The New York Rangers beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-3 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-3 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. Zach Parise and Patrik Eliáš each scored 2 goals.

* In an Original Six matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 8-2 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-3 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Dallas Stars, 4-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Colorado Avalanche, 4-0 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 2-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-0 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the HP Pavilion (now the San Jose Arena) in San Jose.