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Anne Heche Biography:
Anne Celeste Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio on May 25, 1969. The youngest
of four children, instability arrived early in her life, as the Heche
family moved eleven times during Anne's first twelve years. The daughter
of a Baptist minister/choir director, she grew up in a series of small
towns with a strict fundamentalist Christian upbringing.
Heche began singing and acting
in local dinner theater productions when she was twelve. Following her
graduation from Ocean City High in New Jersey, Heche landed the dual role
of good/evil twins Marley/Vicky in NBC's daytime drama, Another World.
She stayed with the show from 1987-1991, during which she picked up some
awards, including a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress in 1991.
After a few minor parts on prime-time
TV, Heche made the switch to the big screen in 1993's The Adventures Of
Huck Finn. While hardly a stunning film debut, she began landing small
roles in higher profile productions.
It was during the filming of
A Simple Twist Of Fate in 1993 that the actress met actor/comedian Steve
Martin. Twenty-four years her senior, Heche thought she had found all
she could hope for in a relationship, but the two split up in 1995.
1997 was a landmark year for
Anne, both professionally and personally. In addition to appearances in
I Know What You Did Last Summer and Volcano, her performances in Donnie
Brasco and Wag The Dog won her the National Board of Review's Best Supporting
Actress Award. And at the Oscars ceremony in March of that year, she met
comedian Ellen DeGeneres.
Heche and DeGeneres began a high-profile
relationship, which instantly propelled them to status of poster girls
for lesbianism -- and just in time for Ellen's famous "coming out" episode a month later. Heche's agents panicked at the thought of her going
public with her new relationship, feeling it would end her rising career.
She fired them and continued to land bigger roles in big pictures.
Heche soon appeared opposite
Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights and Return To Paradise with Vince
Vaughn (both released in 1998). She was nominated for a Saturn Award for
her role in the remake of Psycho, though the film was universally panned.
Anne Heche directed her first
feature Reaching Normal in 1999. She then developed and directed a segment
of HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2, starring Sharon Stone and Ellen
DeGeneres as a lesbian couple struggling to conceive a baby. In August
2000, Anne turned up on the doorstep of a stranger's home in a confused
state, asking if she could use their shower. This incident, which occurred
near Fresno, California, coincided with her breakup with Ellen. After
a brief hospitalization, she returned to the set of John Q starring Denzel
Washington.
In September 2001, Heche faced
Barbara Walters on 20/20, and discussed what she referred to as her 31
years of mental illness. She spoke of her bizarre wandering episode, and
claims to have regained her sanity the day of the incident. Prior to then,
she believed she had two personalities: the real Anne Heche, and Celestia,
who was from another planet and spoke directly to God.
After marrying Coleman "Coley" Laffoon, a cameraman, on September 1, 2001, her autobiography, Call Me
Crazy, was released at the end of 2001. On March 2, 2002, she gave birth
to a son, Homer Heche Laffoon. She states that she is neither straight,
nor gay, nor bisexual, but does plan on remaining heterosexual for the
rest of her life. Time will tell if Anne Heche ever pins herself down
to one way of defining herself. |
