River's memory lives on in Ledger

As news broke on Tuesday about the untimely death of Heath Ledger, flash-backs stirred the memories of another talented actor, taken before his time on 31 October 1993. So will Heath Ledger be remembered as a 21st Century River Phoenix? The similarities are as sad as they are striking. Both Oscar nominated actors were considered among the brightest stars of their generations. And both had dark and lonely sides to their characters that, seemingly only drugs could ease.

I was a student in Liverpool when River Phoenix collapsed outside Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club, the Viper Rooms. Looking back, I shared the sense of loss, felt not only by his legions of fans but also from within the acting world. An indicator of how far his star could have risen comes from his contemporaries such as Keanu Reeves, Christian Slater and Johnny Depp, all still A-list movie and theatre stars commanding big money deals.

Phoenix was 23 years old. He had taken a fatal mix of drugs after being told by Chili Peppers bassist Flea, that there was no room on the stage for his promised jam with Depp and his band. His young age and the circumstances of his death ensured River Phoenix's last moments went down in movie folklore, often overshadowing his talents and his already accomplished body of work.

Heath Ledger was 28. Alone in bed, he was found by a housekeeper. Prescription sleeping pills and anti anxiety drugs were at his bedside. It seems that he too, accidentally consumed a narcotic mix that has taken his short life and will ensure he stays forever young like James Dean and Phoenix before him.

Intense roles became Ledger's trademark soon after he got his break in teen movies such as 10 Things I Hate About You. He'd downplayed his leading-man looks as a drug addict in Candy, an incarnation of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There and a sexually confused cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. Phoenix had risked his heart-throb status by playing a narcoleptic rent boy alongside Keanu Reeves in My Own Private Idaho (a film that still ranks highly amongst my all-time greats).

Now, like Phoenix before him, the tributes following Ledger's death and the sorrow of what could have been have flooded in from Hollywood's elite. But it was Jack Nicholson's initial reaction 'I told him', that had the most impact. Nicholson has since clarified that he had warned Ledger to stop taking prescription pills to stave off insomnia. Nicholson himself almost drove off a cliff 50 yards from his house after taking the drug Ambien. In one of his last interviews Heath confessed to taking one Ambien pill after another while filming the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight - only to wake an hour later. He said: "My body was exhausted and my mind was still racing."

It may be that he had spoken to Nicholson about the role of the Joker and confessed his dark secret. By then voicing it to the press, it may also have been a cry for further help that fell on deaf ears. His character in The Dark Knight is, by all accounts, the scariest and darkest interpretation of the gothic villain ever imagined. It is Ledger's final finished performance. I anticipate it may also prove to be his best.