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Actress Anne Heche has died. She was 53.
Heche’s son confirmed his mom’s death in a statement, saying, “My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom. After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness. Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom. Over those six days, thousands of friends, family, and fans made their hearts known to me. I am grateful for their love, as I am for the support of my Dad, Coley, and my stepmom Alexi who continue to be my rock during this time. Rest In Peace Mom, I love you, Homer.”
The “Six Days, Seven Nights” star was in a coma and suffered a “severe” brain injury after she was involved in a serious car wreck a week ago, a representative for the actress told Fox News Digital.
Her representative told Fox News Digital earlier this week that she had suffered a “significant pulmonary injury” and needed “mechanical ventilation” with “burns that require surgical intervention.”
On Thursday, Heche’s rep told Fox News Digital that the actress was “not expected to survive.”
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she’s being kept on life support to determine if any are viable,” the rep added in a statement on behalf of Heche’s friends and family.
Anne Heche (pictured in 2021) had her blood tested when she was administered in the hospital following car crash.
(Kevin Winter)
“We want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers for Anne’s recovery and thank the dedicated staff and wonderful nurses that cared for Anne at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital,” the statement continued.
“Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit. More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light,” the statement concluded.
In overhead video captured from the Aug. 5 scene, Heche was wheeled out from the burning home on a stretcher by firefighters with a white protective sheet covering her body.
Just as they reached the ambulance, she abruptly sat up for a moment before entering the emergency medical vehicle. Following the crash, her rep confirmed Heche “hasn’t regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”
A blood test later revealed “the presence of drugs,” the Los Angeles Police Department told Fox News Digital, but additional testing was needed to “rule out any substances that were administered at the hospital as part of her medical treatment.”
ANNE HECHE’S ‘HORRIFIC’ CAR CRASH: EYEWITNESS’ SHARES TERRIFYING DETAILS FROM FIERY INCIDENT
Heche found small screen success on soap operas in the ‘80s, and portrayed twins on “Another World,” which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards.
She rose to fame on the silver screen in the late ‘90s for her starring roles alongside Johnny Depp in “Donnie Brasco,” with Harrison Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights,” and Gus Van Sant’s remake of “Psycho.
Heche, the youngest of five children, was born in Ohio and raised in a strict Baptist Christian household.
Anne Heche and Alec Baldwin pose at the after party for The Roundabout Theatre Company benefit performance of “Twentieth Century” at Patrick’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar Times Square in 2019
(Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
Her father died at the age of 45 when she was 13 years old. That same year, her 18-year-old brother, Nathan, was killed in a car collision.
Her first feature film role was in 1993 for Disney’s “The Adventures of Huck Finn” with Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance, Ron Perlman, Dana Ivey and Jason Robards.
She worked with Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith in “Milk Money” in 1994, and Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the ‘96 thriller, “The Juror.”
Baldwin and Heche later reconnected for the 2004 Broadway play, “Twentieth Century,” where she earned a Tony Award nomination for best actress in a play.
ANNE HECHE: A LOOK AT HER TROUBLED PAST AND TRAUMA IN HER OWN WORDS
“I love you Anne. I love you and I think you are such a talented person. I hope everything is ok. I hope you come through this. My heart goes out to you,” Baldwin told his Instagram followers at the time of her crash.
Heche had stints on “Ally McBeal,” “Everwood,” “Hung,” “Dig” and “Nip/Tuck,” and starred as Deputy Superintendent Katherine Brennan on Chicago P.D.
Most recently, she competed on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2020 and was in post-production on a host of projects, including “Full Ride” with Dermot Mulroney, “The Idol” with The Weeknd, Lily-Rose Depp and Troye Sivan, and “Supercell” with Skeet Ulrich and Baldwin.
She began dating Ellen DeGeneres in 1997 after meeting at the Vanity Fair Oscars party, and they made their relationship official while walking the red carpet at her “Volcano” movie premiere.
Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres dated for three years before breaking up in 2000.
(Ron Davis)
In August 2000, they confirmed the end of their relationship in a joint statement, saying the breakup was “an amicable parting.”
Heche suffered a public breakdown hours later, and she was found at a stranger’s house in Cantua Creek, Fresno County, after parking her car on a highway and wandering through the desert.
Authorities responded to the home of the concerned resident, and Heche was taken to a hospital after officials on the scene determined there was a serious medical issue.
“She proceeded to tell me that she was God and was going to take everyone back to heaven with her in some sort of spaceship,” one Fresno deputy wrote in a report at the time.
One year later, Heche admitted to Larry King that she had taken a “hit of ecstasy” when she got out of her car, adding, “I was so far gone by that point, you know, by the time I took the pill, I was waiting for my spaceship.”
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Heche detailed some of the traumas that triggered her breakdown in her 2001 memoir “Call Me Crazy.”
“I called my other personality Celestia,” she told Barbara Walters in another interview. “I believed I was from that world. I believed I was from another planet. I think I was insane.”
Nearly one year after her breakup, Heche married cameraman Coleman “Coley” Laffoon in September 2001, and the couple have one son, Homer, together.
James Tupper (L) and Anne Heche (R) attend The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA Inaugural Emmy Nominees Night presented by American Airlines, Breguet, and Dacor.
(Todd Williamson/Getty Images for THR)
Laffoon and Heche split after five years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized on March 4, 2009.
Heche began dating her “Men in Trees” co-star, James Tupper, and she confirmed she was pregnant again in December 2008, and later had a son named Atlas. While they were never married, the couple ended their relationship in 2018.
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