Sad news from the BBC:

Hollywood actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence, a New York Police Department spokesman has said.

"He was found unconscious at the apartment and pronounced dead," a police spokeswoman said.

It is not yet clear how the 28-year-old Australian actor, who earned an Oscar nomination as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, died.

The latest reports suggest Ledger's death was drug related.

Read more in the New York Times's City Room blog.