Breaking News: Heath Ledger found dead. Possible suicide as rescue workers found pills nearby. WABC is reporting the pills were over-the-counter sleeping pills and Ledger was found unresponsive in bed. CPR was performed by paramedics, but without success.

Update: Okay, the bizarre side elements to the story are rolling in. New York Times is reporting Ledger was not in his own home but rather that of Mary-Kate Olsen. Very strange. Stories going back and forth on whether it’s really owned by Olsen or not.

Update 2: The Olsen connection has been debunked, as suspected. The fire department is citing a possible suicide while the police department is declining to speculate at this point.

In a recent interview Heath Ledger detailed how he was talking the sleeping drug Ambien due to his work as The Joker in The Dark Knight. He said he found the character so dark and without morale values that it was keeping him from sleeping. He noted the pills weren’t working for him at the time.

For those concerned about the effect on The Dark Knight, the new Batman film had already completed filming and will still be released this summer. Without intending to be morbid, I would anticipate this giving a boost to the new movie, though it doesn’t really need it.

New York Times gives details:

The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment building at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, according to the New York City police. Mr. Ledger was 28.

At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger unconscious. They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities. The police said they did not suspect foul play and said they found pills near body.

WTOP News and CNN are both backing this up. This is really sad news and is a big loss to Hollywood. I’ll update with more details as they come in.