It's rare to actually be shocked by a young actor's possibly drug-related death. But Ledger was a really fine actor, in my opinion, and his performance in Brokeback Mountain was a gut-wrenchingly under-stated evocation of the terror and pain of the closet. I was looking forward to his Joker. How horribly sad.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/01/ledger/220917/
