 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
Emmy award winning film and television actor Anne Heche has been pronounced dead at the age of 53 after life support was removed following a fiery accident on August 5. Heche suffered severe burns after her car plunged into a two-storey residential apartment in West Los Angeles.
Heche taken off life support
Heche was
“peacefully taken off life support,” The Associated Press quoted spokeswoman
Holly Baird as saying in a statement Sunday night.
Heche was
placed on life support at a Los Angeles burn center after suffering a “severe
anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, according to a
statement released by her representatives on behalf of her family and friends.
She was declared brain dead last week but remained on life support for
potential organ donor.
Heche was
survived by two sons – Homer Laffoon, 20, with her ex-husband Coley Laffoon and
Atlas Tupper, 13, with her ex James Tupper, ABC News reported.
"My
brother Atlas and I lost our mom," Homer, 20, said in a statement to
PEOPLE.
"After
six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep,
wordless sadness. Hopefully, my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore
what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom."
He
continued: "Over those six days, thousands of friends, family, and fans
made their hearts known to me.
"I am
grateful for their love, as I am for the support of my dad, Coley, and my
stepmom, Alexi, who continue to be my rock during this time. Rest in peace,
Mom. I love you."
Did Heche drive under the influence (DUI)?
The actress
was under investigation for driving under the influence (DUI).
Detectives
who took Heche’s blood sample with a search warrant found narcotics in her
system, according to LAPD spokesperson Jeff Lee.
Her family
says organ donation has “long been her choice”.
Heche was
born in 1969 in Ohio but her father died of HIV/Aids, when she was 13 years
old, according to BBC.
Heche's father repeatedly raped her as a child?
The actress
accused the father in a 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy of repeatedly raping her as a
child.
The BBC
reported that in interviews promoting her book, Heche said the abuse caused her
to be "insane" for the first 31 years of her life and that she had
created a fantasy world called the "Fourth Dimension" to make herself
feel safe.
In 2004
Heche was nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway in 2004. She was spotted by a
talent agent in a school play after her family moved to Chicago.
She
portrayed twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World,
according to the BBC. She won a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest
Awards for those two roles.
Heche became
prominent in the late 1990s playing Maggie in crime drama movie Donnie Brasco
and Johnny Depp.
She appeared
in Six Days, Seven Nights and the drama-thriller Return to Paradise and later
portrayed Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant’s remake of the classic horror film
Psycho, BBC reported.
Heche
suffered from mental health problems and also struggled with drug use and was
hospitalized after parking on a highway in California and walking into the
desert at some point.