Anne Heche's Real Name: Anne Celeste Heche

Quick answer: Anne Heche was born Anne Celeste Heche on May 25, 1969, in Aurora, Ohio. She won a Daytime Emmy on Another World and became a major film star in the late 1990s with Donnie Brasco, Volcano, and Six Days, Seven Nights. She died at 53 in August 2022, of injuries from a car crash in Los Angeles. The coroner ruled her death an accident (Library of Congress; AP).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Heche, Anne." It cites "actress, producer, writer; born on May 25, 1969 in Aurora, Ohio, USA as Anne Celeste Heche." Celeste was her middle name, and Heche was her family surname.

The Associated Press described her as an Ohio native whose family moved around the country. AP said she had a difficult childhood that drew her toward acting as an escape. She was offered professional work while still in high school. AP also reported that her brother Nathan, one of her four siblings, was killed in a car crash not long after their father's death in 1983.

Career highlights

Heche first became known on NBC's soap Another World (1987–91). She won a Daytime Emmy for playing twins Marley and Vicky. In 1997 she appeared opposite Johnny Depp in Donnie Brasco, Tommy Lee Jones in Volcano, and in I Know What You Did Last Summer. The National Board of Review named her best supporting actress for Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog. In 1998 she starred with Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights, appeared in Return to Paradise, and played Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant's Psycho.

AP noted that her three-year relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, begun in 1997, made them one of Hollywood's first openly gay couples. Heche later said the industry became wary of casting her in leading roles. She wrote about her mental health in the 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy. She starred on Broadway in Proof (2002) and kept working in films, on stage, and on TV. Recent work included Men in Trees, Chicago P.D., All Rise, and Dancing with the Stars (2020). She had a son with ex-husband Coleman Laffoon and another son with actor James Tupper.

On August 5, 2022, her car crashed into a West Los Angeles home and caught fire. AP reported that she was declared brain-dead and was taken off life support on Sunday, August 14, after an organ donation assessment. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that she died of inhalation injury and burns, and called the death an accident.

Name notes for searchers

Heche was her family surname, and she never used a stage name. For pronunciation, Wikipedia gives the pronunciation as "HAYTCH." Celeste, her middle name, is confirmed by the LOC record.