Nancy Davis wrote on Instagram: “Heaven has a new angel. My loving, kind, fun, loving and beautiful friend @anneheche has gone to heaven. I will miss you terribly and cherish all the beautiful memories we have shared. “Anna was always the kindest, most thoughtful person who always brought out the best in me… My heart is broken.” It was announced earlier in the day that Heche would be taken off life support. Hetse was 53 years old and had two sons. Many hoped Heche would recover after a publicist for the actor reported her in “stable” condition after crashing her car at a home in Los Angeles on August 5. Firefighters said he was talking to them as he was freed from the wreckage and taken to the hospital. But the actor shortly afterwards lost consciousness, and on August 8 representatives released an update, saying that Hetse was in “extremely critical condition” and had slipped into a coma. On Friday, her family said in a statement that she was not expected to survive and was being kept on life support to see if her organs could be donated. Heche, an actor with a sharp wit, rose to prominence in the early 1990s playing twins in the soap opera Another World, and in film roles, including the role of Laura in Nicole Holofcener’s feature debut, Walking and Talking. Her first major role was as Johnny Depp’s girlfriend in the gangster drama Donnie Brasco (1997). That same year saw other enduring titles: political satire Wag the Dog, disaster film Volcano and slasher classic I Know What You Did Last Summer. Heche in Donnie Brasco. Photo: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Also that year, Heche began a high-profile relationship with sitcom star and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, shortly after the comedian came out as gay. The couple was together for three years. Heche spoke of her gratitude to Harrison Ford, who went on to produce the romance Six Days, Seven Nights despite the homophobic backlash to Heche’s real-life relationship. In 1998, she starred as Marion Crane in Gus van Sant’s revisionist remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho, and then averaged one film a year for the next decade, choosing creatively ambitious projects to juggle parental responsibilities. She played Nicole Kidman’s sister in Jonathan Glazer’s psychological drama Birth and Ashton Kutcher’s girlfriend in the comedy Spread. In 2011, she appeared in the award-winning indie comedy Cedar Rapids and co-starred as the ex-wife of corrupt cop Woody Harrelson in Rampart. Recent key film roles include serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s mother in a 2017 biopic and as a furious con artist opposite Sandra Oh in the acclaimed 2016 black comedy Catfight. Reviewing this film, Benjamin Lee of the Guardian called it “ a rare comedy with something to say and a uniquely ambitious structure that transcends its limited budget. “Both leads are excellent, with Heche in particular proving a welcome presence on the big screen, allowed to inhabit more than just a supporting character.” She was also a contestant on the 2020 season of the American show Dancing with the Stars. In 2001, Heche published the memoir Call Me Crazy, which describes her tumultuous upbringing as the youngest of five children in a family that moved 11 times during her childhood. Heche and Ellen DeGeneres in 1998. Photo: Héctor Mata/AFP/Getty Images When Heche was 13, her father died of AIDS, which she said she contracted from same-sex partners. Heche also claimed that her father repeatedly raped her as a child, causing her to contract genital herpes when she was young. Other members of her family disputed the claim. Three months after their father’s death, Heche’s brother Nathan died in a car accident, which his sister claimed was a suicide. Heche became estranged from her mother soon after. In 2000, according to reports, Heche drove into the desert and walked some distance to a stranger’s ranch where she asked to take a shower and then settled into the living room to watch a movie. The homeowner called the local sheriff after Hetse showed no sign of leaving. the actress was briefly admitted to a psychiatric unit and admitted that she had taken ecstasy. In her book, Heche says she was “crazy” for the first 31 years of her life because of the abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her father. Promoting the memoir, Heche said that in the past she would retreat for safety to an alter ego: Christ’s half-sister who had contact with extraterrestrial life forms. In 2001, Heche married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, with whom she had a son. The marriage ended in divorce and in 2009, Heche had a son with James Tupper, her Men in Trees co-star.
