While we will not know exactly what killed Heath Ledger for another 10 days or so, we do know that the police have reported that sleeping pills were found in the room. Maybe not “scattered around” as originally reported, but he did have prescription sleeping pills in his room with his name on the bottle.
What is certain is that if he did take an overdose of sleeping pills, he certainly would not be the first celebrity to do so. Here is a list of celebs who tried to take their life with sleeping pills:
Actress Mary Astor starred along side Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. She had a successful acting career, but her personal life was in shambles. Astor had always had a drinking problem and by 1949, was committed to a sanitarium for alcoholics. In 1951, she called her doctor, telling him she had taken too many sleeping pills. The police said it was a suicide attempt, but Mary said it was just an accident. Mary later died in 1987 at the age of 81.
Brigitte Bardot was known as a sex kitten, but few people may know she tried to commit suicide several times, starting in her teens. When she was 26, she swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills and slit her wrists. Reportedly, a 13-year-old girl found her lying in a garden and saved her life. Bardot is now known for her animal rights activism.
Diminutive actor Gary Coleman admitted in 1993 that he had tried to commit suicide twice by swallowing sleeping pills.
Actress Barbara Payton was involved in a love triangle with actors Franchot Tone and Tom Neal. After taking sleeping pills, she was discovered by Tone. However, this little triangle didn’t end here. Actress Jean Wallace tried to end her life with sleeping pills while married to Tone in 1946. The two eventually divorced in 1948, with Tone marrying Payton in 1951, despite her asking Neal to marry her. She and Tone remained married for 53 days before divorcing. Payton went back to Neal and they stayed together for four years. Wallace, maybe not able to get over losing Tone, stabbed herself to death in 1949.
Martha Raye always seemed cheery on the outside, but apparently, there was some darkness behind the smile. After the failure of her television show, the breakup of her fifth marriage, and other personal and health problems, Raye tried to kill herself with sleeping pills. She was taken to The Sisters of St. Francis Hospital. So thankful for their care, Martha often thanked them by saying “Goodnight, Sisters” in her shows.
Beautiful actress Tuesday Weld first to commit suicide when she was just 12 by taking a bottle of aspirin, a bottle of sleeping pills, and drinking a bottle of gin. What was the reason? She had fallen in love with a homosexual and was hurt when the relationship didn’t work out.