Anne Heche

Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress who worked across film, television, and theater. She first achieved national prominence for her work on daytime television before transitioning to feature films in the late 1990s. Over her career, she received several honors, including a Daytime Emmy Award, a National Board of Review Award, and a GLAAD Media Award, along with nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Born on May 25, 1969, in Aurora, Ohio, Heche was the youngest of five children of Donald Joe Heche and Nancy Heche. Her family relocated frequently during her childhood across Ohio and New Jersey due to financial instability. She took on early work, including singing at a boardwalk hamburger stand and acting at a dinner theater in Swainton, New Jersey. Following the death of her father in 1983 and her brother shortly after, the family moved to Chicago, where she attended the Francis W. Parker School and was active in theatrical plays.

Heche began her professional acting career in 1987 on the NBC soap opera Another World, portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love until 1991. Her role earned her a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series. She made her primetime television debut in a 1991 episode of Murphy Brown and her feature film debut in An Ambush of Ghosts in 1993, followed by a role in The Adventures of Huck Finn. During the mid-1990s, she appeared in stage productions, television films such as Girls in Prison and Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long, and independent films like Walking and Talking.

Her breakthrough came in 1997 when she starred in the crime drama Donnie Brasco. That same year, she appeared in three other major film releases: Volcano, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Wag the Dog. Her performances in Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog earned her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1998, she held leading roles in the romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights, the drama Return to Paradise, and Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho.

Between 1999 and 2001, Heche turned her focus toward directing, including a segment of the HBO television film If These Walls Could Talk 2. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her starring role in the 2004 Broadway revival of Twentieth Century and received a Primetime Emmy nomination for the television film Gracie's Choice that same year. Her later television roles included appearances on Everwood, Men in Trees, and The Brave, as well as competing on Dancing with the Stars in 2020. Her film credits included Prozac Nation, John Q., Birth, Spread, Cedar Rapids, Catfight, and My Friend Dahmer.

Heche's personal life attracted significant media coverage, including her high-profile relationship with Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, she released a memoir titled Call Me Crazy. On August 5, 2022, Heche was critically injured in a high-speed car crash in Los Angeles, leading to her death six days later on August 11, 2022, at the age of 53.