HEATH LEDGER, the actor whose sudden death at 28 is under investigation in New York, was planning a film biography of Nick Drake, the cult 1970s British folk singer, whose death had similarities to his own.

Ledger, co-star of Brokeback Mountain, made an amateur video for the last song Drake wrote before, according to a Warwickshire coroner, he killed himself aged 26 with antidepressant pills in 1974.

In the disturbing video for the song Black Eyed Dog, named after Sir Winston Churchill’s “black dog” phrase for depression, Ledger used a hand-held camera to film himself slowly drowning in a bath.

Like Drake, Ledger was shy in public, last appearing at a New York nightclub called the Beat-rice Inn on Sunday wearing a ski mask. And like Drake he was found in his bed at home after taking prescription antidepressants, which has given rise to suicide rumours.

Dr Michael Baden, former chief pathologist for the city of New York, said the number of such pills needed to kill a healthy young man ruled out “a groggy accident”.

Friends say Ledger was talking about a Nick Drake film on his return to Manhattan after spending Christmas with his family in Perth. “He was still excited about a Drake film, especially after the Drake family spokesman described his video as extremely moving,” said one last week.

Ledger spoke about the singer at the Venice film festival last September. “Nick Drake is a very mysterious figure,” he said. “I was obsessed with his story and music and I still have great hopes to tell his story one day.”

People magazine has claimed that after his split in September from his Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams, Ledger was “drinking and taking drugs to excess”.

But friends said in recent weeks he had spent more time with his daughter Matilda, 2, and started a relationship with the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, 21. They said he was drinking only water and staying home a lot in his Manhattan flat. Additional reporting: Julie Earle-Levine in New York and Paul Ham in Sydney

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