Anne Heche, who was known for her quick rise to fame in the 1990s, who was in a coma following a fiery car crash, was declared brain-dead and taken off life support on August 12, 2022. She was 53 years old.
On August 5, Heche crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a home in Los Angeles. Although no one in the house was harmed, the crash took 59 firefighters over an hour to extinguish.
“Solo passenger vehicle struck and came to rest well within a 738 square foot two-story home built in 1952, causing structural compromise and erupting in heavy fire,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.
Chilling 911 recorded phone calls, and footage released from ring door cameras have been released to the public.
Heche was immediately hospitalized in critical condition for serious burns and injuries. It was soon determined the actress was under the influence of narcotics. Her injuries included a severe anoxic brain injury, a pulmonary injury that required a ventilator amongst severe burns.
Her spokeswoman announced on Sunday night that Heche was “peacefully taken off life support.” News of Heche’s crash has stirred much discussion about mental health. Heche was known to have survived an abusive and tragic childhood. She had struggled with mental illness, triggered by being sexually abused by her own father.
Heche then turned to acting as an escape.
Her acting career started on the NBC soap opera, Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award. From there, she played Johnny Depp’s wife in Donnie Brasco, and worked with Tommy Lee Jones in Volcano. She was also part of the cast of films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Six Days, Seven Nights, Return to Paradise, Psycho (1998), and John Q.
In 1997, Heche met Ellen DeGeneres at the 1997 Vanity Fair Oscar Party and started a three-year relationship. They were one of Hollywood’s first openly gay couples.
In 2001, Heche gave a tell-all interview with Barbara Walters about her lifelong battles. She detailed her sexual abuse. Heche’s suffering was so extreme that she developed a separate personality, she claimed. This “other person” would imagine herself as a visitor from another planet.
“I’m not crazy. But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me,” Heche told Walters. “I drank. I smoked, I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.”
Since her passing, Heche’s ex-husband, Coleman Laffoon, has released a tear-filled video memoir in her honor. She leaves behind two sons–one of whom she shared with Laffoon, and the other with actor James Tupper.
