Culture

Actor Anne Heche Has Died at Age 53 Following a Car Crash


Actor Anne Heche has died at the age of 53 a week after she was injured in a car crash, the Guardian reports.

Heche’s family released a statement to media outlet TMZ confirming her death. “We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend,” they said. “Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy. Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance, will continue to have a lasting impact.”

Heche was hospitalized on Friday, August 5, when she crashed into a house in Los Angeles. The crash ignited a fire that took fifty-nine firefighters to quell. According to Deadline, Heche was able to communicate when she was rescued but slipped into a coma some time after. On Monday, August 8, doctors described her as being in “extreme critical condition.”

Heche was a prolific actress who starred in both blockbuster and independent films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Volcano, and Six Days, Seven Nights. She also won a Daytime Emmy award for her work on the soap opera Another World, in which she played twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love.

Heche is also very well known for her public relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres in the late 1990s. In 2021, Heche told Page Six that she was “blacklisted” in Hollywood for being in an out queer relationship at a time when that was considered taboo. “I didn’t do a studio picture for 10 years,” she said. “I was fired from a $10 million picture deal and did not see the light of day in a studio picture.”

Despite being persona non grata in Hollywood after a string of hits, Heche did say that she was glad that her visible queerness helped push the needle forward for LGBTQ+ people in the United States.

“Those repercussions that happened, are to me what has created a part of the change,” she said. “I’m a part of it. It is a badge of honor.”

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