Actress Anne Heche, the former partner of Ellen DeGeneres, was critically injured in a car crash in Los Angeles Friday morning.
Heche’s Mini Cooper jumped a curb and hit a home in the Mar Vista neighborhood on the west side of L.A. about 11 a.m. and started the house on fire, numerous local sources report. She suffered severe burns and was taken to a hospital, according to the Los Angeles Times. Heche, 53, appeared to be “under the influence” and “acting erratically,” L.A. Fire Department officials told the paper.
It took firefighters over an hour to contain the blaze. The homeowner was in the backyard and escaped injury.
Heche and DeGeneres were together from 1997 to 2000 and were a high-profile couple. They appeared together on Oprah Winfrey’s show and many others. Their breakup was very public, amid reports that Heche was wandering disoriented along a road in central California and went into a stranger’s home. The couple released a statement calling their parting “amicable.” Heche later said that being in a same-sex romance cost her work in Hollywood, but she was proud to have been “part of a revolution that created social change.”
Heche later married a man, camera operator Coley Laffoon, and then was in a relationship with James Tupper. She has had one child with each. She has authored an autobiography, Call Me Crazy, and has talked about being the daughter of a closeted gay man.
Heche’s films include Donnie Brasco, Wag the Dog, John Q, and Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho. She has appeared in numerous TV series and was Emmy-nominated for one of them, Gracie’s Choice. She won a Daytime Emmy for her role in the soap opera Another World early in her career, and she received GLAAD’s Stephen F. Kolzak Award in 2000, honoring her as an LGBTQ+ media professional who has advanced acceptance of the community.
Story developing…
