Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence, he was 28.  99.5 WYCD wishes to send their condolences to family, friends, and fans of Heath Ledger.  Please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below.  We will not publish the cause of death here at wycd.com, until it has been confirmed.

The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, where he met his wife, actress Michelle Williams, in 2005.

Ledger was to appear as The Joker this year in The Dark Night, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins.  He's had starring roles in A Knight's Tale and The Patriot, and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball.

Ledger grew up in Perth, and began doing amateur theater at age 10. At 16, he moved to Sydney to pursue an acting career, quickly landing TV movie roles and guest spots on Australian television. After several independent films and a starring role in the short-lived Fox TV series Roar,  Ledger moved to Los Angeles and costarred in 10 Things I Hate About You, a teen comedy reworking of The Taming of the Shrew.

Offers for other teen flicks came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like. “It wasn't a hard decision for me,”  Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. “It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, You're crazy,' my parents were like, Come on, you have to eat.'" 

His latest role was in I'm Not There, in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan — as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress

Heath Ledger Trivia:

• Heath Ledger and his sister are named after the two main romantic characters of the Emily Brontë novel, "Wuthering Heights".
• Dated costar Lisa Zane while they were filming "Roar" (1997).
• Concentrated on drama and sports in school. When asked to choose between the two, he picked drama. Attended a private all-boys school called Guildford Grammar.
• Auditioned for the part of Max on the TV show "Roswell" (1999). However, the show was originally developed for Fox and since he had already starred in "Roar" (1997), which was unsuccessful for Fox, they did not want to hire him.
• Has three sisters: Kate Ledger, and half sisters Olivia Ledger and Ashleigh Bell.
• Mother is Sally and father is Kim.
• Named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2001.
• Dated Heather Graham. [October 2000 - June 2001]
• Was a part of the Kalamunda Field Hockey team back in 1990 in his native country of Australia. His father, Kim Ledger, was the president of the team from 1990-1992.
• Was a men's-fashion judge at the Melbourne Cup Carnival in November 2001.
• Shares a birthday with Hugo Weaving.
• Was originally set to star in Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004) before Colin Farrell took over the role.
• Was considered for the role of Kar in Bulletproof Monk (2003) but eventually turned it down. The role later went to Seann William Scott.
• Dated Naomi Watts (August 2002 - May 2004)
• He and Naomi Watts broke up for the 2nd time, April 2004.
• Born on the same day as American Pie (1999) star Natasha Lyonne.
• Worked with Orlando Bloom in Ned Kelly (2003). Ledger worked with Scottish actor James Cosmo in The Four Feathers (2002). Both Bloom and Cosmo worked together in the movie Troy (2004).
• Was named "the new Matt Damon" in Josie and the Pussycats (2001). They now act side by side in The Brothers Grimm (2005)
• Most of his wardrobe is designed by his friend Shem.
• Is of Irish and Scottish ancestry
• Starred in 3 films which screened at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. They included Brokeback Mountain (2005), The Brothers Grimm (2005) and the out-of-competition Casanova (2005).
• Fiancée Michelle Williams gave birth to daughter Matilda Rose Ledger on 28 October 2005, who weighed in 6 lb, 5 oz.
• Met Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain (2005).
• Was selected in the State U17 squad in field hockey and was touted as one of the up and coming young stars, but chose to pack it in and try to make a career out of acting.
• Jake Gyllenhaal is the godfather of his daughter Matilda.
• Was mentored by, lived with, and is very good friends with Martin Henderson.
• Invited to join AMPAS in 2006.
• Is the first non-American actor to portray the Joker.
• Set to star in Baz Luhrmann's pre-WWII drama, but backed out to play The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).
• Busy Philipps is the godmother of his daughter Matilda.
• When he was cast as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), rumors circulated that his Brokeback Mountain (2005) cast mate Jake Gyllenhaal would be playing district attorney Harvey Dent. Instead, Jake's sister Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes.
• Dropped out of Australia (2008) to do The Dark Knight (2008).
• Is one of seven godparents of Elizabeth Hurley's son Damien.
• Called off his engagement to Michelle Williams in September 2007.
• Choosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world (#79) 2007.