The US actress Anne Heche (“Ally McBeal”, “Six Days, Seven Nights”) died a week after a car accident. Your team of spokesmen confirmed the death of the 53-year-old on Friday in a message that was available to the German Press Agency. Accordingly, brain death has occurred, according to California law a person is considered dead. However, she is still connected to life-support equipment and her heart is still beating to perform an organ donation, spokeswoman Holly Baird said.
The day before, the family had announced that the 53-year-old had no chance of survival. Heche suffered a severe brain injury and is in a coma.
Heche had sons Homer (20) and Atlas (13) from two relationships. “My brother Atlas and I lost our mother,” Homer wrote in a statement on Friday. “After six days of incredible emotional swings, what remains is a deep, speechless sorrow.” Hopefully his mother is now free of pain and on her way to “eternal freedom”.
Homer’s father, cinematographer Coley Laffoon, expressed his grief in a video message on Instagram on Friday. “She was brave and fearless and she loved with all her might,” he said of Heche. “Love you forever,” wrote actor James Tupper (57, “Men in Trees”), father of their son Atlas, on Instagram.
Colleagues, including Rosie O’Donnell and Rosanna Arquette, also paid tribute to the deceased. “This is a sad day,” wrote talk show star Ellen DeGeneres. Heche had been in a relationship with the presenter for several years before her marriage to Laffoon. Following her headline-grabbing breakup with DeGeneres in 2000, Heche released an autobiography called Call Me Crazy, in which she was candid about her battle with mental illness.
According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the accident happened on August 5 in the Mar Vista district. Heche’s car crashed into a house at high speed and only came to a stop after almost ten meters. The vehicle and the house caught fire. Heche was taken to a hospital while still alive. According to the media, the police said on Thursday that they were investigating driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
