At the time of his death, Ledger had just finished playing the villain The Joker in "The Dark Knight," the latest installment in the Batman series. The film is to open in July.

The role disturbed him, according to The Associated Press. He called The Joker a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week, I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."

He said prescription sleeping pills didn't help, according to AP.

Matt Thomas: 1 Heath Ledger: 0

For many years, I was a receptionist at an upscale design studio here in the beautiful city of New York. A big part of my job, between dealing with everyone's ---- and making sure I was sitting up straight, was coddling our considerable celebrity clientele. Most celebrities, in my experience, are the same as anyone else who might be willing to spend $38,000 on a bath tub. A few, though, are real pieces of ----. An example of the latter was Heath Ledger.

From the moment he walked into my shop, he was condescending and hateful. Perhaps because I had no idea who he was, or perhaps because I didn't care even after he repeatedly told me, he always copped an attitude with me. Perhaps it was because he was saddled a big fat pregnant wife, or maybe because I was so much taller than him, but I never failed to receive an absolutely insane amount of grief from the man.

Our already curt relationship reached a new level of insanity when once, after a series of infuriated phone calls (coming from him as often as once every five minutes) he was unable to contain the personal disgust he held for me, and launched into an angry tirade that was punctuated with "You've always hated me!" I've seen a lot of celebrities say a lot of ridiculously hurtful, insulting, and downright weird ----, but this remains perhaps the most outlandish.

Thing is, he was right. I just didn't want to admit it at the time. I had always hated Heath Ledger.

But now that doesn't matter, because I've ------- won.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movi...ead/index.html