Anne Heche: American actress (1969–2022)

She starred in the television soap opera Another World. She received a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991 and in 2004, she was nominated for another Emmy Award and a Tony Award. She starred in many theatrical movies. She is best known for her roles in 1990s movies such as Donnie Brasco (1997), Volcano (1997), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), and Return to Paradise (1998).

Anne Heche
Heche in 2014
Born	Anne Celeste Heche (1969-05-25)May 25, 1969 Aurora, Ohio, U.S.
Died	August 11, 2022(2022-08-11) (aged 53) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Injuries caused by a car crash
Occupation(s)	Actress, director, screenwriter
Years active	1987–2022
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Spouse(s)	Coleman Laffoon (m. 2001; div. 2009)
Partner(s)	Ellen DeGeneres (1997–2000) James Tupper (2008–2018)
Children	2

As Heche was beginning to establish herself in movies during the late 1990s, her career was negatively affected by her highly publicized same-sex relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. This resulted in Heche losing movie offers.

She later returned to having television roles such as in Men in Trees (2006–08), Hung (2009–11), Save Me (2013), Aftermath (2016), and the military drama television series The Brave (2017). She was also the voice of Suyin Beifong in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Legend of Korra (2014).

Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio to Nancy Prickett and Donald Joseph Heche. Heche's family moved eleven times and once lived in an Amish community. She was raised in Ocean City, New Jersey. Her father died of AIDS when he was 45. Heche said her father raped her and gave her genital herpes when she was 12. In 1985, she moved to Chicago where she went to high school. In 1987, she was offered a role in the soap opera As the World Turns, however her mother wanted her to graduate high school before starting her career. A few months before she graduated high school, she was cast in the soap opera Another World.

Her sister Cynthia died of a heart defect in infancy. Her brother Nathan died in a car crash aged 18 in June 1983. Her sister, Susan Bergman, died aged 48 in January 2006.

Relationships

 

Anne Heche's same-sex relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup became subjects of widespread media interest. The couple started dating in 1997. At one point, they said they would get a civil union if it became legal in Vermont. They broke up in August 2000. Heche has said that all of her other relationships have been with men.

After the split, Heche began dating cameraman Coleman 'Coley' Laffoon. They married on September 1, 2001. Their son, Homer, was born on March 2, 2002. Laffoon filed for divorce on February 2, 2007. Heche lost custody of their son in June 2007.

Heche left her husband for Men in Trees co-star James Tupper. The couple reportedly moved in together in August 2007. On December 5, 2008, it was confirmed by Heche's representative that the actress was pregnant with Tupper's child. Their son, Atlas Heche Tupper, was born on March 8, 2009.

Psychological problems

On August 19, 2000, Heche drove from Los Angeles to Cantua Creek, a rural area outside Fresno, California. She parked her Toyota SUV along a dusty roadside. Wearing only a bra and shorts, Heche walked 1½ miles through the desert before knocking on the door of a stranger's ranch house. When the home's resident, Araceli Campiz, opened the door, she knew Heche from the movie Six Days Seven Nights. Bemused at first, Campiz grew uneasy when Heche showed no sign of leaving. "I didn't know what to do," Campiz said. "So I called the sheriff's department." When deputies arrived, Heche told them that she was "God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven in a spaceship," according to a police report that was aired on NBC. The deputies called an ambulance. Heche went 50 miles to Fresno's University Medical Center, from which she was released after a few hours.

Heche said that she was insane for the first 31 years of her life. She said this was due to the trauma of being sexually abused by her father during her infancy and childhood. As a result of this trauma, Heche also said she had multiple personality disorder. She made an alter ego named "Celestia," an alien from another planet who could speak to God and was the half-sister of Jesus Christ. Heche said that the incident in Cantua Creek snapped her out of her insanity and put her alter ego behind her.

Car crashes and death

On August 5, 2022, Heche was part of a series of car crashes, first hitting a garage at an apartment complex, and ending in a fiery car crash that left her "severely burned" in the hospital. It was reported that she was under the influence and acting not normally at the time of the crash. Heche was in critical condition after the accident, and on August 7, she was in stable condition. The next day however, Heche was in a coma because of major lung and brain injuries. Heche had cocaine in her system at the time of the car crashes.

On August 12, 2022, her family confirmed that Heche was brain dead and on life-support. Her family said they would remove her life support when they find out if they can donate her organs. By California law, Heche died on August 11 because she was brain dead. Her life-support was removed on August 14.