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Anne Heche taken off life support
The Industry Aug 12, 2022
Anne Heche in 2014. | Photo courtesy of Mingle Media TV/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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An organ recipient has been found for Anne Heche, whose body was on life support although she is legally dead under California law, a spokesperson for the actress has reported Monday.
Heche was taken off life support Sunday as a result, the Los Angeles Times reported and People magazine confirmed. It was unclear which of Heche’s organs will be donated to the recipient.
She was declared brain dead on Friday, nine days after she crashed her car into a home in Mar Vista.
Heche was an organ donor and was on life support until a recipient could be identified. The number of recipients for her organs was not released.
Los Angeles police have officially ended their investigation into the crash that resulted in the death Heche and the resulting fire that destroyed a two-story home in Mar Vista.
“As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,” the department announced Friday, the same day the 53-year-old actress was pronounced brain dead. “Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case.
“When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.”
Her death came one week after she crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a Mar Vista home in the 1700 block of South Walgrove Avenue that was largely destroyed in the ensuing fire.
Blood tests showed the presence of “narcotics,” prompting a “felony DUI investigation,” Officer Annie Hernandez said. The test results also showed Heche was not under the influence of alcohol.
That investigation is now closed.
The bizarre series of events that led to her death began earlier on the morning of Aug. 5. TMZ obtained video showing Heche involved in a minor collision at a Mar Vista-area apartment complex, crashing into a wall in a parking area, then driving away as people nearby tried to help. The crash into the home occurred a short time later.
Surveillance video posted on social media showed her car speeding down the 1700 block of South Walgrove Avenue, a residential street near Palms Boulevard, just prior to the crash, which sent Heche’s car completely into the home.
The vehicle “struck and came to rest well within a 738-square-foot two-story home, built in 1952, causing structural compromise and erupting in heavy fire prior to LAFD arrival,” said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
“Fifty-nine firefighters took 65 minutes to access, confine and fully extinguish the stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure, and rescue one female adult found within the vehicle,” Humphrey said.
No other injuries were reported.
Heche rose to fame on the soap opera “Another World,” where she played the dual role of twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love from 1987 to 1991 and won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance.
In the following years, she amassed more than 100 acting credits in films such as “Wag the Dog,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and director Gus Van Sant’s remake of “Psycho” and television shows including “Ally McBeal,” “Chicago P.D.” and a recurring role on the CBS courtroom drama “All Rise.”
She also appeared in several Broadway productions, earning a Tony nomination in 2004 for her work in the play “Twentieth Century.”
Before her death, Heche completed Lifetime’s “Girl in Room 13,” which is set to premiere this fall.
She is survived by two sons, Homer Heche Laffoon, 20, and Atlas Tupper, 13; her estranged mother, Nancy Heche; and one sibling.
Originally posted Aug. 12, 2022 at 2:23 p.m. / Updated Aug. 15 at 2:33 p.m. An earlier version of this story reported Heche’s death when she was declared brain dead but remained on life support for organ donation.
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