Playing The Joker didn’t kill Heath, insist Ledger’s sisters

HEATH LEDGER’S film role as Batman villain The Joker played no part in his death, his family have insisted.

The Aussie actor’s sisters set the record straight on his part in The Dark Knight, for which he won a posthumous Oscar.

The star was found dead, aged 28, at his Manhattan home in January 2008.

Speculation was rife at the time that Ledger’s method acting had triggered a bout of insomnia that led to him taking a fatal overdose of prescription drugs.

‘I was really shocked. He was having fun. He wasn’t depressed about The Joker,’ Kate Ledger said in a rare interview. ‘He had an amazing sense of humour.’

Sibling Ashleigh Bell added: ‘It came out he was depressed and it was taking a toll, and we were going, “What?”’

The pair spoke at the premiere of upcoming documentary I Am Heath Ledger, at Tribeca film festival on Sunday.

Author: Andrei Harmsworth