Anne Heche

Anne Celeste Heche ( May 25, 1969 – August 11, 2022) was an American actress, known for her roles across a variety of genres in film, television, and theater.

She was the recipient of Daytime Emmy, National Board of Review, and GLAAD Media Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy.

Anne Celeste Heche was born on May 25, 1969, in Aurora, Ohio, the youngest of five children of Donald "Don" Joe Heche and Nancy Heche (née Prickett).

During her early childhood, the Heche family lived in various towns around Ohio, including suburbs of Cleveland and Akron.

Heche's parents were fundamentalist Christians and the family was raised in a deeply religious environment, a situation that she later likened to being "raised in a cult".

At the same time, her father Don led an unstable lifestyle, often changing professions and prone to frequent get-rich-quick schemes, though also with a real gift for music that led to jobs as a choir director in several churches.

Heche noted in her memoir that her family changed denominations several times depending on which church her father found work in.

Because of Don Heche's often unstable lifestyle and financial situation, the family moved numerous times during her childhood.

One of his financial schemes led the family to resettle in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, area in 1977, first in Ventnor City and later Ocean City.

One of Anne's first jobs was at a boardwalk hamburger stand, where she would sing songs from Annie to attract customers.

The Heche family's precarious financial situation led to the foreclosure of a home her father owned and later their eviction from a rental home.

They moved in with a family from their church who offered them a place to live as an act of charity.

Anne's mother separated from her father and demanded he leave the household.

Her mother and all of the children then took jobs to support the family and be able to live on their own.

Anne found work at a dinner theater in Swainton, her first professional acting job, earning $100 a week (about $300 per week in 2022 dollars).

Don Heche moved to New York City, where Anne and her sisters would occasionally visit him, noticing his declining health.

He claimed it was cancer, when in fact he had developed late-stage AIDS.

Although he lived as a gay man in New York, Don kept his sexuality and the nature of his illness from his family.

His family did not know about his diagnosis and had not even heard of AIDS until coming across an article on the disease in The New York Times about a month before his death.

Don Heche died from AIDS-related complications on March 3, 1983, aged 45.

Heche began her professional acting career on the NBC soap opera Another World (1987–1991), earning a Daytime Emmy Award for her portrayal of twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love.

She made her film debut in 1993 with a small role in The Adventures of Huck Finn.

Heche's profile rose in 1997 with appearances in Donnie Brasco, Volcano, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Wag the Dog.

She was in a high-profile relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres between 1997 and 2000, with the pair being described by The Advocate as "the first gay supercouple".

Immediately following her split from DeGeneres, she suffered a highly publicized psychotic break.

In 1998, she had starring roles in the romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights and the drama-thriller Return to Paradise.

In a 1998 interview, Anne reflected that her father being closeted ultimately "destroyed his happiness and our family. But it did teach me to tell the truth. Nothing else is worth anything."

Three months after her father's death, Anne's 18-year-old brother Nathan was killed in a car crash when his vehicle missed a curve and struck a tree.

The remainder of her immediate family subsequently moved to Chicago to be closer to other family members.

Anne, her mother, and her older sister Abigail, who had left college, were all living together in a one-bedroom apartment, which lacked privacy and which Heche would compare to living in a dorm room.

Heche attended the progressive Francis W. Parker School, where she continued to be active in theater, performing in such plays as Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth and Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead.

From 1999 to 2001, Heche focused on directing, most notably a segment of the HBO television film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000).

Other film appearances included Prozac Nation (2001), John Q. (2002), Birth (2004), Spread (2009), Cedar Rapids (2011), Catfight (2016), and My Friend Dahmer (2017).

In 2001, Heche published a memoir titled Call Me Crazy, in which she alleged extensive sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

On August 5, 2022, Heche was critically injured in a high-speed car crash.

She died at a Los Angeles hospital on August 11, 2022, at the age of 53.

She was nominated for a Tony Award for her starring role in the 2004 Broadway revival of Twentieth Century, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award that same year for her appearance in the television film Gracie's Choice.

Heche also starred on a number of television series, such as The WB's Everwood (2004–2005), ABC's Men in Trees (2006–2008), and NBC's The Brave (2017–2018).

In 2020, she appeared as a contestant on the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars, finishing in 13th place.

Events in Heche's personal life often upstaged her acting career.