The New York Times-20080125-Funeral Plans for Ledger Remain Cloudy
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Funeral Plans for Ledger Remain Cloudy
Two days after the actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in SoHo, reporters and paparazzi converged on Thursday at the funeral home where his body had been taken.
The police set up barricades outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, on Madison Avenue at 81st Street, while a stream of mourners left flowers and scribbled tributes at a makeshift memorial outside the loft building where Mr. Ledger, the Australian-born star of Brokeback Mountain, died. By Thursday afternoon, someone had tacked an Australian flag beside the front door of the building, at 421 Broome Street.
Mr. Ledger, 28, was found in his apartment on Tuesday by a masseuse who arrived for an appointment and went into his bedroom, where he had been sleeping.
The police have said that the masseuse, Diana Wolozin, called the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a friend of Mr. Ledger's, three times before she called the police and once afterward. Ms. Olsen, who was in California, sent private security agents who arrived at the same time as emergency medical workers.
The police also said that Ms. Wolozin shook Mr. Ledger twice -- before she placed the first call to Ms. Olsen, and again before she dialed 911. She could not rouse him, the police said.
Dominick Carella, an official at Frank E. Campbell, said on Thursday evening that that funeral arrangements had not been completed.
Everyone assumed funeral arrangements were going on today, which they were not, he said. There had been speculation during the day, heightened by no-parking signs the police posted up and down Madison Avenue, that Mr. Ledger's father, Kim, would arrive from Australia on Friday and would then accompany the body back to Australia for burial. I never commented on that and I haven't gotten word on that, Mr. Carella said.
Mr. Ledger's spokeswoman, Mara Buxbaum, said she would not comment on when or where services would be held.
Outside the funeral home, the police stood watch in anticipation of crowds. Their mission was to prevent anything approaching the turmoil that surrounded the funeral of a far more famous movie star, Rudolph Valentino, in the Roaring Twenties. Thirty thousand fans swarmed the funeral home, then on the Upper West Side, hoping for a last glimpse of the matinee idol. In the chaos, more than 100 people were injured.
[Illustration]PHOTO: The body of the actor Heath Ledger has been taken to the Frank E. Campbell funeral home. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARKO GEORGIEV/REUTERS)