Actress Anne Heche Is Dead At 53 Following A Car Crash

Anne Heche, the actress best known for her roles in Donnie Brasco, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Cedar Rapids, has died after she was “pronounced brain dead” following a car crash last week, her family confirmed on Friday. She was 53 years old.

TMZ reports that “Anne is ‘brain dead’ and under California law that is the definition of death. The rep adds life support machines are keeping Anne’s heart beating for the purpose of preserving her organs for donations, however, the rep made it clear… Anne has no brain function.”

Heche was initially in “stable condition” after she crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a Los Angeles home (drugs were found in her system), but she lost consciousness on August 8th and slipped into a coma. “Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive,” her family wrote in a statement. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”

Heche, who dated Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000, won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in the soap opera Another World and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards for playing the iconic Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake. She is survived by her two kids.