Heath Ledger’s family is eager to attend The Dark Knight premiere in New York City Monday night in honor of the actor, while other family and friends will get to see his buzzed-about performance back home in Perth, Australia in advance screenings.

“I spoke to them before they left for the U.S. and they were great,” says a representative with the Australian entertainment company Village Roadshow of the Ledgers, who traveled from their hometown of Perth, Western Australia for the event. “They were looking forward to the trip and going to the premiere.”

Michelle Williams will not be attending the premiere. Reports speculated she was “boycotting” it because of a rift with Ledger’s family over his 2003 will that left his assets to his father, mother, and three sisters. But that is not the case, says her rep. In a statement issued last month, her rep called any reports of a rift “absurd.”

“Family and friends of Heath Ledger will attend one of several previews of The Dark Knight in Perth on July 14,” the Roadshow rep says. “A bunch of tickets was sent to a contact of the family who has distributed them to family and friends.”

The Dark Knight hits theaters Friday, July 18.

• Reporting By MELENIE AMBROSE

Heath Ledger’s legacy will live on not only in a theatre in his hometown of Perth - but possibly through an Oscar nomination, according to one his Dark Knight costars.

“I think Heath will surely get a posthumous nomination for an Academy Award,” Michael Caine said Friday at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where the legendary actor was honored in a hand and footprint ceremony.

“He was incredible %26#91;and%26#93; he was amazing,” said Caine, 75. “And I think he will get it. It’s an incredible performance, just wonderful.”

Caine isn’t the only person raving about Ledger’s performance as The Joker. “%26#91;For%26#93; those who knew him and those who had the privilege of working with him, it’s been pretty amazing, the disparity between the person he was and the monster that he created for us,” the film’s director Christopher Nolan said at a press day in June. “To see that being created from this very gentle person is a real testament to his skill as an actor.”

Planning to see The Dark Knight when it opens July 18? Better get your tickets now.

More than a week before its scheduled opening, the much-anticipated Batman film has already sold out everywhere from New York City to Boise, according to the ticket source Fandango. Theaters report that seats for midnight shows have gone so fast that they must continue to add 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. showtimes.

A Fandango.com poll of more than 3,000 people revealed that 38% plan to take time off from work on the movie’s opening day after seeing it in the wee hours.

Ledger, who died Jan. 22 from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, has the year’s most anticipated role and is already generating posthumous Oscar buzz.

Earlier this year Bale said his late costar did one hell of a job on the film.

Perth, Australia, is getting a new landmark: a $87 million, 575-seat auditorium named for a native son, the Heath Ledger Theatre.

Western Australia state Premier Alan Carpenter said at a dedication ceremony Tuesday that the name was appropriate, given how supportive the late actor had always been for fellow young performers, the Associated Press reports.

“Heath Ledger was totally dedicated to the craft of being an actor and that’s what made him successful,” Carpenter said. “I think what we’re doing is continuing that support for young people who want to make a career in the arts and acting, stage and in film, whatever it happens to be.”

“He was such a giver to the arts right across the board. I really feel that there’s not a lot of things he’d put his name to, but he’d put his name to that,” said the elder Ledger, who also said he and other family members were planning to attend this month’s New York premiere of The Dark Knight - the Batman adventure in which Heath plays the Joker and is receiving posthumous Oscar buzz.

Kim Ledger also said that the praise being heaped upon Heath’s performance is making his family’s private grieving all the more difficult.

“It’s just been a little more public, and the films make it a little more public, as well,” he said. “It’s been a little bit hard, but we’ve always been extremely proud of his work and that hasn’t changed.”

Heath Ledger’s maniacal twist on the Joker in The Dark Knight in no way resembled his true character off set - that of a proud father to his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, his costars say.

“Because he died people want a dark story %26#91;that%26#93; he was so obsessed with the character, he was so contaminated by the Joker and he couldn’t sleep and all of that stuff,” said costar Gary Oldman, who plays Lt. Jim Gordon in the film, adding that wasn’t the case.

“In between takes he would sit on the curbside and smoke a cigarette and laugh and talk about his daughter Matilda,” added Oldman Sunday at the press day for the film. “I thought he was just a beautiful kid. I thought he was just wonderful. I had a real affection for him.

“Heath showed me pictures of %26#91;Matilda%26#93; … %26#91;he%26#93; would come in and say she did this and she did that,” recalled Aaron Eckhart, who plays District Attorney Harvey Dent in the sequel out July 18.

But Ledger’s other love on set was for his character, the Joker. Eckhart added: “He really created his look. That character %26#151; Heath loved so much. He really cared about the Joker.”

Director Christopher Nolan said he needed an actor who would be “truly fearless” for the role and Ledger was up for the challenge.

“%26#91;For%26#93; those who knew him and those who had the privilege of working with him, it’s pretty amazing the disparity between the person he was and the monster that he created for us,” Nolan said. “To see that being created from this very gentle person is a real testament to his skill as an actor.”

Heath Ledger will receive a special posthumous tribute at the end of his Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

The movie’s closing credits will also acknowledge special-effects technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed last September in a stunt-car accident.

The send-off reads, “In memory of our friends Heath Ledger %26 Conway Wickliffe.”

Ledger, who died in January, plays the villainous Joker in the film, which opens July 18. It also stars Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader, as well as Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
- Stephen M. Silverman

Heath Ledger’s death on Jan. 22 was due to an accidental mixture of prescription drugs, New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner has concluded.

“Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Diazepam, Temazepam, Alprazolam, and Doxylamine,” said an announcement released Wednesday morning by office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.

Oxycodone is a painkiller, Hydrocodone is also known as Vicodin, Diazepam is commonly called Valium, Temazepam treats anxiety or sleeplessness, Alprazolam is known as Xanax, and Doxylamine is a sedating antihistamine often used as a sleep aid.

Dr. Michael Hunter, a prominent forensic pathologist not involved in the Ledger matter, tells PEOPLE that the combination of the powerful drugs most likely caused “poly-drug intoxication” which led to respiratory arrest. “His breathing probably got slower and slower until it stopped all together,” he said.

Hunter also said it is highly unlikely a doctor would have allowed Ledger to take all the different types of drugs in his system (though another doctor, Vatsal Thakkar, a psychiatrist at NYU Medical Center, tells PEOPLE that it could be “sloppy prescribing”). Either way, “This is a dangerous mixture of drugs,” said Hunter. “We are seeing more and more people dying of poly-drug intoxication from prescription drugs and it usually a combination of the narcotic-type drugs seen here.”

Hunter said it’s important to note that the Medical Examiner officially ruled the death an accident, which means they must have ruled out suicide. He also said they officially determined his death was caused by the “abuse” of prescription drugs, which is telling.

“When they use the term abuse it tells us that he used drugs to obtain an intoxicant effect and not for a therapeutic reason. They must have determined through their investigation that the drugs were not for therapeutic use.”

The actor, 28, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Jan. 22. Authorities said at the time that they did not suspect foul play but that medication was found near the body. (Six medications, including anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills, were found near the body.)

The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale says he misses co-star

Heath Ledger deeply, and that he hopes their movie - the very last one Ledger completed - will be a celebration of his friend’s life and work.

“I want to talk about Heath,” Bale told this Sunday’s issue of PARADE. “When you miss somebody, you want to speak about him. He was a good man, and I was glad to have spent time with him.”

Ledger died in a Manhattan apartment in January at the age of 28. His

death was later ruled an accidental

prescription-drug overdose. Ledger had finished work on The Dark Knight and was still working on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus when he died.

especially since he had felt the two would be close for a long time.

“He was somebody who I’d been seeing on a daily basis for months,” Bale says. “It takes a long time to accept that someone’s gone, when all body and mind are telling you that this is somebody you will know for a great deal of time. He was something of a kindred spirit to myself.”

Among other things, Bale and Ledger - who play mortal enemies Batman and the Joker in the film - bonded over their daughters. Matilda, Ledger’s daughter with Michelle Williams, turns 3 this fall. Bale’s own daughter is 3 now.

“Much of it has to do with my respect for his daughter, whom he loved so dearly and whom he would talk about so often,” Bale says of his closeness with Ledger. “For me, that is of incredible importance.”

Bale has previously said that Ledger did a hell of a job on their movie, something he’d hoped he and Ledger would share.

Now, Bale says, he wants The Dark Knight to stand as a

testament to his late friend’s talent, and help erase the ugliness of

the days immediately after Ledger’s death.

“I hope in a small way that The Dark Knight can be a

celebration of his work,” he says. “Not like the hideous circus after

he died, which I felt was an invasion of a private life. This movie is not a personal home video. This is what he did. I hope people will embrace that in the correct fashion.”

Director Terry Gilliam is feverishly working to figure out how to keep Heath Ledger alive on film, according to one of the late actor’s costars in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which Ledger was still shooting when he died last week.

“Terry’s throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture,” veteran actor Christopher Plummer told PEOPLE over the weekend.

Despite earlier reports that the director might shelve the $30 million production, Gilliam, whom Plummer describes as “terribly saddened” by Ledger’s death is “trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI…

Ledger and Plummer both left the London portion of the movie’s shoot last weekend and were due to continue filming next week in Vancouver. Leaving England, says Plummer, “Heath was in very high spirits. He was just enjoying himself tremendously. It’s a rather fanciful script, and he was wonderful in this role.”

Confirming earlier reports that Ledger hadnt been feeling well on set, Plummer says, “we all caught colds because we were shooting outside on horrible, damp nights. But Heath’s went on and I don’t think he dealt with it immediately with the antibiotics.…I think what he did have was the walking pneumonia.”

On top of that, “He was saying all the time, ‘dammit, I can’t sleep’…and he was taking all these pills %26#91;to help him%26#93;.”

As well as the damp cold and lack of sleep, Plummer describes the shoot as rigorous. “We had to shoot every second we were out there…there was hardly any time to go into the tent or the car to keep warm. We just kept shooting…boom, boom, boom…there was no pause. It was very, very hard work.”

Ledger would have appreciated the show-must-go-on mentality, says his co-star. “He was terribly likeable and obviously enormously talented…and the combination was terrific. It’s such a shame these things have to happen to the good ones.”

As for reports that Gilliam has approached Johnny Depp to step into Ledger’s role, the actor’s rep tells PEOPLE: “There have been no official talks, and he is currently working on Public Enemies for Michael Mann for Universal.”

Heath Ledger, the actor who quickly transformed from Aussie heartthrob to Oscar nominee and doting dad, was found dead at his Manhattan residence Tuesday, a New York police spokesman confirms. He was 28.

Police say the death may have been drug-related and that “prescription-type drugs” were found near his body.

Ledger was found in the bedroom of his SoHo apartment around 3:30 p.m. by his housekeeper and a masseuse who had arrived for an appointment with the actor, police say.

Ledger was nude, lying on the floor curled up, at the foot of his bed. He did not respond when they shook him, and the housekeeper called 911. He was pronounced dead at 3:45 p.m. ET.

“There were some drugs found around the body - prescription-type drugs,” a police spokesman tells PEOPLE. The spokesman says there were two bottles of prescription sleep aids, and that the prescriptions were made out to Ledger.

A medical examiner removed Ledger’s body from the apartment just before 6:30 p.m. ET, and New York City Medical Examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove says the autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Despite initial reports that Ledger was subletting the apartment from Mary-Kate Olsen, reps for the actress denied that Olsen ever owned or lived in the apartment.

Ledger was last spotted publicly in London on Saturday on the set of Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Photos showed Ledger wearing a clown costume. Other pictures of Ledger out of costume show him with long brown hair and a dark goatee.

Oscar Nomination %26 A Baby Girl

The Perth, Australia, native was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, on whose set he met - and began a romantic relationship with - Michelle Williams. Theirs was described by others on the film as love at first sight. (PHOTOS: See a complete timeline and photos from his life.)

Their daughter, Matilda Rose, was born in New York on Oct. 28, 2005. Ledger and Williams, who shared a brownstone together in Brooklyn, split in September 2007.

Ledger began his acting career in 1996, when he was 17, in an Australian TV series called Sweat, but later found big-screen stardom in Hollywood with 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You, opposite Julia Stiles. He soon followed it with films including 2000’s The Patriot and 2001’s A Knight’s Tale and Monster’s Ball.

“I’m lucky in a sense because I have a job where I get to scream and cry,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times in November. “I get to purge myself in ways that don’t really affect me personally. When the director yells cut, I just walk out the door and I’m back into my regular life.”

In his regular life, he clearly embraced being a dad to Matilda. “Fatherhood has changed me as an artist because I feel things on a deeper level,” he said. “I think my performances will grow simultaneously.”

In August 2006, Warner Bros. announced that Ledger would play the Joker in The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins. On the set, he wowed his costars, including Michael Caine.

“The biggest thing in Batman will be the thing everyone was most worried about: you’ve got the Joker, and when Jack Nicholson was the joker, well, how are you going to top that?” Caine said last year. “Well, Heath Ledger has. He is extraordinary.”

• By KATHY EHRICH DOWD, STEPHEN M. SILVERMAN, RYAN PIENCIAK, ALYSSA SHELASKY and KRISTIN BOEHM

Heath Ledger: Life in Photos: See all the actor’s most recent photos - from life as a dad to being an Oscar nominee