Anne Heche
Heche at the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Awards in June.
Born	Anne Celeste Heche (1969-05-25) May 25, 1969 (age 43) Aurora, Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress, director, screenwriter
Years active	1987–present
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Spouse	Coleman Laffoon (2001–2009)
Partner	Ellen DeGeneres (1997–2000) James Tupper (2007–present)
Children	2

Anne Celeste Heche ( /ˈheɪʃ/ HAYSH; born May 25, 1969) is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Wag the Dog, Donnie Brasco and Volcano. Her first leading role in a major Hollywood film was Six Days Seven Nights (1998)—which has remained her highest-profile film role to date. Following a supporting role in the film John Q. (2002), she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the TV movie Gracie's Choice (2004), and starred in the 2006–2008 TV series Men in Trees. Her most recent film roles include Spread (2009), The Other Guys (2010), and Cedar Rapids (2011); she currently appears in the HBO cable TV series Hung.

Heche was beginning to establish herself in films during the late 1990s, when she began a highly publicized relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. In 2001, a year after her break-up with DeGeneres, Heche married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, with whom she had a son. Since their separation in 2007 (they divorced in 2009), she has lived with actor James Tupper, with whom she also has a son.

Early life[link]

Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio, the daughter of Nancy (née Prickett) and Donald Joe Heche.^[1] Her father was an organist, church founder, Baptist minister, and choir director.^[2] Her father disclosed his homosexuality to his family before dying of AIDS in 1983. In that same year, Heche's older brother Nate, who was also an actor, was killed in a car accident just a few months before his graduation from high school.^[3] Heche was a noted actress at the progressive Francis W. Parker School, in Chicago, and the Bunche Park soap opera. As the World Turns offered her a contract in 1985, when she was 16. However, both she and her mother felt it best that she finish high school first.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Immediately after her high school graduation, Heche landed her first major TV role, that of good and evil twins Vicky and Marley on the NBC soap opera Another World. For that work, Heche earned the Daytime Emmy award for "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" and won a Soap Opera Digest Awards. Heche taped her final episode of Another World in 1991 and the following year made her TV film debut alongside Jessica Lange in the Golden Globe-nominated adaptation of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers. She made her feature debut as Mary Jane Wilks in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1993) and gradually landed larger roles in I'll Do Anything (1994) and TV movies Against the Wall (1994) and Kingfish: A Story of Huey Long (1995), playing Huey Long's mistress.

Her breakthrough role was that of a friend of Demi Moore's character, who falls victim to a hit man in the thriller The Juror (1996). She appeared alongside Jada Pinkett Smith and Cher in the controversial abortion drama If These Walls Could Talk (1996). She went on to appear in the acclaimed indie Walking and Talking (1996). She was praised for her performance by critic Alison Macor of Austin Chronicle who said in her review that "While Heche may be best known for her role on the daytime soap Another World, her acting in Walking and Talking suggests that she, too, is destined for larger film roles".^[4] She had a significant role opposite Johnny Depp in Donnie Brasco (1997), as the wife of an FBI agent whose intensely guarded job as a mafia infiltrator threatens to destroy his own life and family. She got positive reviews for her role from critics such as Janet Maslin of New York Times who said Heche "does well with what could have been the thankless role of Joe Pistone's wife, who is left to mind three children and shovel snow for months at a time while Joe is busy being Donnie Brasco".^[5]

Heche teamed with Tommy Lee Jones in the disaster flick Volcano (1997) and continued her rise with a well-reviewed turn as a presidential advisor in the political satire Wag the Dog (1997). She appeared in the horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and starred opposite Harrison Ford in the romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights (1998). In 1998, she co-starred as Marion Crane opposite Vince Vaughn in the remake of Psycho. The film got mixed reviews from media and some critics including Edward Guthmann of San Francisco Chronicle stated "Heche is so good, in fact, and so frisky and watchable in her role, that after her grisly demise in the shower you miss her for a long time".^[6]

In 1999, she played the skeptical daughter of a woman proposed as a candidate for sainthood in The Third Miracle. Heche wrote and directed the Emmy^[7]-nominated HBO movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000). Later that year, she was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award, along with the rest of the creators and cast of If These Walls Could Talk and If These Walls Could Talk 2.^[8]

In 2001, Heche released the memoir Call Me Crazy.^[9] She appeared in the Denzel Washington thriller John Q and also played Dr. Sterling in the long-delayed adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's bestseller Prozac Nation (2001). She had a recurring role on the hit show Ally McBeal as the eccentric soulmate of John Cage during the 2000–2001 season. Heche starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof on Broadway. In 2004, Heche received an Emmy nomination for playing a drug-addicted mother who neglects her children in the Lifetime movie Gracie's Choice (2004). She starred alongside Nicole Kidman in the well-received independent film Birth and also appeared in a recurring role on the WB drama Everwood before returning to Broadway, where she was nominated for a Tony Award for a revival of Twentieth Century, starring opposite Alec Baldwin. She then took on a recurring role on Nip/Tuck in 2005 as an ex-mob wife and Witness Protection Program subject who requires plastic surgery. By the next fall, she was headlining her own primetime show, ABC’s dramedy Men in Trees where she starred as a transplanted New York author living in small town Alaska, which happens to be abundant with single men and few women. Men in Trees was canceled in May 2008, after a season shortened by the writer’s strike. She had the starring role in Spread, a sex comedy co-starring Ashton Kutcher released in 2009, which came out in a limited release and with negative reviews, however, Matthew Turney of View London wrote "There's also terrific support" from Heche.^[10]

Heche currently stars in HBO's new series Hung, a dark comedy that centers on a well-endowed but struggling high school basketball/baseball coach. Thomas Jane plays the lead character, Ray. Heche plays Ray's ex-wife, who is remarried. The actress replaces Kristin Bauer, who played the role in the pilot. To date, the show has been received well by film critics.

In 2011, Heche appeared in the independent romantic comedy film Cedar Rapids, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is about a naive middle-aged man (played by The Hangover actor Ed Helms) who ventures out of his sheltered existence for the first time when he’s forced to attend an insurance conference. Since its release Cedar Rapids has received many good reviews in which Heche's performance was well received; David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated that "while Heche shines brightest in more brittle mode, as in HBO's Hung, she strikes a sweet balance between Joan's mischievous and maternal sides".^[11]

Media[link]

Throughout her career, she has appeared in several magazine covers including Entertainment Weekly, Mirabella and Observer Magazine. Heche was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1998. She became a significant subject of widespread media interest while dating comedian Ellen DeGeneres. With her look in films like Six Days Seven Nights, she has exuded a certain sex appeal.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Relationships[link]

Heche's same-sex relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup became subjects of widespread media interest.^[13][14] The couple started dating in 1997 shortly after the famous "Puppy Episode" of DeGeneres' sitcom Ellen. At one point, the two said they would get a civil union if such became legal in Vermont. They also worked on film and TV projects together. They broke up in August 2000.^[15]

Shortly after the split, Heche began dating cameraman Coley Laffoon, whom she met while Laffoon was filming a comedy special for DeGeneres. They were married on September 1, 2001. Their son, Homer, was born six months later, on March 2, 2002. The couple formally separated in late January 2007.^[16] Laffoon filed for divorce on February 2, 2007.^[17] After a long-running court battle over spousal and child support, Heche and Laffoon reached a divorce settlement on March 4, 2009.^[18][19][20] In 2009, a court order was issued requiring Heche and Laffoon to hire a “parenting coordinator” to manage their relationships with son Homer. This arrangement remained in effect until May 1, 2011.^[21][22]

Sources say Heche left her husband for Men in Trees co-star James Tupper.^[23] The couple reportedly moved in together in August 2007.^[24] Their son, Atlas Heche Tupper, was born over the weekend of March 7–8, 2009.^[25]

Family[link]

In 1994, Heche's sister, Susan Bergman, wrote a book about the family and their relationship with their father titled Anonymity. Heche and Bergman were reportedly estranged after the release of the book; Bergman died in January 2006.^[26]

Psychological problems[link]

Heche has stated in interviews to have been mentally unstable in the past, claiming at times to be two different people and communicating with God. She claims that the past emotional and sexual abuse as a child by her father contributed to her being "insane".^[27]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Heche, Anne. Call Me Crazy: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-7432-2913-4.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anne Heche

• Official website
• Anne Heche at the Internet Movie Database
• Anne Heche at the Internet Broadway Database
• Anne Heche US Magazine, February 1998, p. 61
• The Anne Heche Interview Summary of an interview with Heche on September 5, 2001 on ABC News.
• "'Men in Trees' Star Anne Heche Grows Into Her Role". AOL Television, November 27, 2006. Interview.
• Anne Heche at Emmys.com