When you work in a newsroom, you're the first to hear just about everything thanks to AP News Alerts. If you have the proper software open, as we almost always do, these alerts show up -- your own little private news service, typically ahead of networks, cable channels, etc.

So, imagine my surprise when a colleague this afternoon said, "Whoa. Heath Ledger. Dead."

Within 10 minutes, all the networks had it, and news Web sites and bloggers were all over it. TMZ.com had cameras at the scene, as a mass of people gathered around Ledger's apartment on Broome Street in New York City.

And like everybody else who follows pop culture, we were attuned to this news in conversation. Stunned. Curious. Sad.

I'll readily admit that I only saw one movie Ledger was ever in: Monster's Ball, the movie several years ago that netted Halle Berry an Oscar. I didn't like it. In fact, I was thoroughly bored with it, and I don't even recall Ledger in the movie.

However, details of his death bear a sad, strange resemblance to the death of a little-known but widely beloved British folk singer of the 1970s, one who gained almost all of his prominence posthumously -- Nick Drake.

As of late Tuesday night, what we know of Ledger's demise is that he was found naked with both prescription and non-prescription sleeping pills surrounding him. There is speculation that he had a heroin problem and that he was stumbling into deep depression, possibly because of his separation from daughter Matilda, born to former fiance Michelle Williams.

All in all, this looks like it was an accidental overdose on Ledger's part. However, there is no guarantee it won't be ruled a suicide, just as Drake's untimely death was on Nov. 25, 1974.

For those who are unfamiliar with Drake and his work, the first thing that would strike some is what resemblance Ledger bore to him. Sure, it's not an exact resemblance, but the pale skin and shaggy, long hair and that look of an artist was true to Ledger and for Drake.

Drake was a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, most famous now for his dark, brooding, cloudy-day folk songs such as "Northern Sky," "One Of These Things First," and my personal favorite, "At The Chime Of A City Clock."

His album, Bryter Layter, was not well received commercially, and whatever depression that might have befallen Drake sank deeper. There was plenty of speculation that Drake had been using heroin, but like with Ledger, it hasn't been substantiated for certain.

Drake had sought some help for his depression, and as is par for the mental health industry, the singer was prescribed a regimen of pills. After the release of a subsequent album, Pink Moon, Drake's shyness turned into total introversion, something friends of Ledger have said happened with him recently.

Among the things I have read about Ledger today -- and who knows what's true and what isn't -- are that he had a hard time sleeping and winding down. A lot of what I have read about Drake, as a fan of his, over the years, indicates that people close to him speculated that Drake overdosed simply by mixing medicines at a prescribed level that, together, were lethal.

For example, I believe I read that Drake might have taken a couple antidepressants with a sleeping pill or an aspirin. Something as seemingly innocuous as that.

Initial indications in Ledger's case are that pills were strewn about his body, although reports that he had been found on the floor initially were deemed to be false. At this point, we just don't know for sure what happened.

However, it wouldn't stun me in the least if Ledger did nothing more than mix pills that, unbeknownst to him, were lethal together. Ledger had been suffering from pneumonia, so perhaps he took some sleeping pills and an antibiotic. Or a codeine-laced cough medicine.

The practical lesson for all of us is in how deadly pill taking can be, even at a prescribed level. Mix one prescribed pill with something over-the-counter, and it's hard to say what the combination will produce.

However, practicality aside, from an artistic perspective, the first thing I thought of upon hearing the details of Ledger's death was Nick Drake, and how he only came to be appreciated decades after his death.

Damn shame. If you have a second, listen to this YouTube'd version of Drake's "At The Chime Of A City Clock," one of my favorite songs of all time. A masterpiece.