Anne Celeste Heche (Aurora, May 25, 1969 – Los Angeles, August 12, 2022) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter.
Born in Ohio, the daughter of Nancy and Donald Heche, she had a difficult and troubled childhood. Her father, a choir director, died of AIDS when she was 14 years old. That same year, her brother Nate also died in a car accident. Another sister, Cynthia, had died a few months after birth due to a heart problem, and in 2006 her sister Susan passed away from brain cancer.
She later moved to Chicago with her mother, where she began working in various clubs as a singer to support herself. During her high school years, she began studying acting and participated in several theatrical productions. It was during these performances that she was noticed by a talent scout who offered her a contract to appear in the soap opera As the World Turns. However, on her mother’s advice, she declined, choosing instead to finish her studies.
Right after graduating, Anne Heche accepted a job offer to join the cast of another soap opera, Another World, filmed in New York. She moved to the Big Apple, where she played the dual role of twins Marley and Vicki Hudson for four years.
Her big-screen debut came in 1993 with the film The Adventures of Huck Finn. She later appeared in several independent films and TV movies, until 1997, when she starred in Donnie Brasco, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Wag the Dog.
After two years of dating actor Steve Martin, the actress made headlines when she announced her relationship with actress Ellen DeGeneres, fueling gossip and especially increasing her popularity. Tabloid media worldwide were quick to spread the news, especially when rumors about the couple’s potential marriage surfaced.
She appeared in several episodes of the sitcom Ellen, where her partner was the lead. It was during this time that she met cameraman Coley Laffoon, whom she married in 2001. The gossip world returned to focus on her when her relationship with DeGeneres ended. She and Laffoon had a son, Homer, in 2001.
Laffoon soon proved to be an inconsistent husband, leading Anne to separate from him in 2007 and later divorce in 2009. In 2000, she made her directorial debut with the TV movie Women, a sequel to If These Walls Could Talk 2, in which she had acted in 1996. She later appeared in the TV series Ally McBeal as Melanie West, as well as in the films John Q and Birth (I Am Sean). Additionally, she participated in other TV series like Everwood and Nip/Tuck.
Between 2006 and 2008, she starred in the TV series Men in Trees. Since 2007, she was in a relationship with actor James Tupper, with whom she had her second son, Atlas, born in 2009. The couple separated in 2018.
On August 5, 2022, she was involved in a car accident. On August 12, a family statement announced that Anne Celeste Heche was “brain dead.” That same day, the machines keeping her alive were turned off, and the official news of the actress’s death was confirmed.
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