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A waifish blonde, Anne Heche (pronounced ‘haytch’) was still relatively unknown when she made headlines in April 1997 disclosing her relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. Almost immediately, there was speculation and questions about whether the actress’ decision to reveal her lesbianism would adversely affect her career, particularly as Heche had been cast as Harrison Ford’s love interest in “Six Days/Seven Nights” (1998). Reportedly, the marketing campaign for the film was altered to play up the adventure aspect of the film instead of the romance, but it was for naught: not only did Heche’s bid for movie stardom fizzle quickly, her much-discussed relationship with Degeneres also collapsed in 2001 and she suffered a highly public 2000 meltdown in which she was found wandering in a dazed state concerned about aliens. Neverthless, she managed to collect herself and reclaim her acting career, as well as become and wife and mother away from the set.

Before becoming a topic of late nighttalk show monologues, Heche had already proven herself as an actress. The daughter of a Baptist minister who was a closet homosexual and succumbed to AIDS complications in 1983 (although Heche has hinted he committed suicide in interviews), the thin wide-eyed performer began her career as a singer and dancer in dinner theater. After her father’s death, Heche did not perform for several years until graduating from high school. Within weeks, she had landed her first major role, that of good and evil twins, Vicky and Marly on the NBC soap opera “Another World”. During her four year stint, Heche earned a Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Younger Actress in 1991 and engaged in a high profile romance with her co-star Richard Burgi.

Feeling stifled, Heche decided to leave the show after four years and enroll at the Parsons School of Design. Instead, she landed a role alongside Jessica Lange in the CBS production “O Pioneers!” (1992) and decided to concentrate on an acting career. Film roles soon followed, including her debut as Mary Jane Wilks in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1993). She gradually landed larger roles in “I’ll Do Anything” (1994) and the TV-movies “Against the Wall” (HBO, 1994), as Kyle MacLachlan’s wife, and “Kingfish: A Story of Huey Long” (TNT, 1995), as the politician’s mistress. Heche landed the breakthrough role of a doctor friend of Demi Moore who falls victim to a hit man in “The Juror” (1996). She went to co-star with Catherine Keener in the indie “Walking and Talking’ (also 1996) before landing the role of Johnny Depp’s neglected wife in “Donnie Brasco” (1997). Later that year, Heche was teamed with Tommy Lee Jones in the disaster flick “Volcano” and won praise for her turn as a presidential advisor in Barry Levinson’s political satire “Wag the Dog” (a role written for a man which Heche played with no changes to the dialogue). By the time of the latter’s release, Heche and DeGeneres had taken their relationship public. While pundits fretted over what the disclosure might do to Heche’s career, the actress pressed on landing co-starring roles with Harrison Ford in the romantic adventure “Six Days, Seven Nights” and Vince Vaughn in “Return to Paradise” (both 1998). She further solidified her rising star status by tackling the role of Marion Crane (again opposite Vaughn as Norman Bates) in a color remake of Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho” (also 1998)

Heche’s feature career cooled when her image as a lesbian interfered with being cast in conventional heterosexual roles. In 1999 she portrayed the skeptical daughter of a woman proposed as a candidate for sainthood in “The Third Miracle,” rumors persisted that she was the model for the ruthlessly ambitious actress played by Heather Graham in Heche’s ex-beau Steve Martin’s comedy “Bowfinger” (1999), and she wrote and directed the “2000″ segment of the Emmy-nominated HBO movie “If These Walls Could Talk 2″ (2000), an anthology about the lesbian experience in America, with Degeneres and Sharon Stone as a couple trying to have a baby–however, after the film aired she and Degeneres called their relationship quits. Shortly after, Heche was discovered wandering in a confused state in Fresno, California, looking for a spaceship manned by aliens/angels and referring to herself as “Celestia”–she later admitted, in her 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy that she was on Ecstacy, and explained that her extraterrestrial leanings were the result of a psyche fractured since her youth, reportedly due to sexual abuse by her father, a closeted gay Baptist choir master who later died of AIDS. Heche’s claims in the book, written in just six weeks, were denied by her family but, true or not, her revelations did seem to quickly stem the widespread ridicule that had been aimed her way. The actress was soon back in a heterosexual relationship, with Coleman Laffoon–a cameraman she met while filming a documentary about DeGeneres–married him and became pregnant with his child in short order.

As Heche’s life seemed to settle back into a pattern of seeming normalcy, her career also got back on track. She had featured roles in the Denzel Washington thriller “John Q” and as Dr. Sterling in the long-delayed adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestseller “Prozac Nation” (2001) and television writer-producer David E. Kelley cast her in a recurring role as Melanie West, the eccentric, tic-addled soul mate of John Cage (Peter MacNicol) during the 2000-2001 season. She also took over for Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ‘Proof’ on Broadway in 2002. In 2004 she played a drug-addicted mother who neglects her children in the Lifetime movie “Gracie’s Choice” and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. That same year she joined the WB drama “Everwood,” as a love interest for star Treat Williams on the small screen and appeared opposite Niccole Kidman in “Birth” on the big screen, and on the legit stage was nominated for Broadway’s 2004 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of “Twentieth Century.” Clearly, by the time she took on a recurring role on “Nip/Tuck” in 2005 as an ex-mob wife and Witness Protection Program subject who requires plastic surgery from Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and becomes involved with him, Heche had reclaimed a great deal of her once-tarnished professional luster.

• Born:
  on 05/25/1969 in Aurora, Ohio
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Family

• Brother: Nathan Heche. killed in car accident three months after death it was a suicide committed in reaction to her father’s death
• Father: Donald Heche. born in 1938; died of complications from AIDS in 1983; disclosed his homosexuality to his family prior to his death; in her book “Call Me Crazy”, Heche claims her father sexually molested her when she was a child and gave her herpes
• Mother: Nancy Heche. Heche is estranged from her mother since she confronted her about the alleged sexual abuse Heche suffered at the hands of her father
• Sister: Abigail Heche. older
• Sister: Susan Bergman. older; eldest in the family; wrote memoir “Anonymity”, about father and his “secret” life; Heche does not speak to her
• Son: Homer Heche Laffoon. born on March 2, 2002

Significant Others

• Husband: Coley Laffoon. born c. 1974; began dating as of late summer 2000; became engaged in May 2001; married on September 1, 2001
• Companion: Ellen DeGeneres. together as of April 1997; separated in August 2000
• Companion: Richard Burgi. co-starred together on “Another World”; involved in late 1980s
• Companion: Steve Martin. met during filming of “A Simple Twist of Fate”; together from 1992 until 1994

Education

• Francis W Parker High School, Chicago, Illinois, 1987

Milestones

• 1982 Began performing in musicals at a Trenton, New Jersey, dinner theater to help support her family at age 12 (date approximate)
• 1988 Played role of good/evil twins Vicky Hudson Frame and Marley McKinnon on the NBC soap opera “Another World”; won Daytime Emmy
• 1992 TV-movie debut in “O Pioneers!” (CBS)
• 1993 Feature film debut, “The Adventures of Huck Finn”
• 1994 Had featured role in “I’ll Do Anything”
• 1994 Originally cast in a supporting role in “A Simple Twist of Fate”; part ended on the cutting room floor
• 1996 Co-starred in the independent film “Walking and Talking”
• 1996 Had role in the Cher-directed “1996″ segment of HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk”
• 1996 Won attention for her pivotal role in “The Juror”
• 1997 Appeared as a presidential advisor in “Wag the Dog”; role had originally been written for a man
• 1997 Disclosed her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres (April)
• 1997 Played Johnny Depp’s wife in “Donnie Brasco”
• 1997 Starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano”
• 1998 Cast as Marion Crane in the color remake of “Psycho” directed by Gus Van Sant
• 1998 Played the female lead opposite Harrison Ford in the romantic “Six Days, Seven Nights”
• 1999 Portrayed the skeptical daughter of a woman proposed as a candidate for sainthood in “The Third Miracle”
• 2000 Cast as a Marine Corps captain accused of murdering her former lover, a higher ranking officer in the fact-based Showtime movie “One Kill”
• 2000 Signed deal with Scribner to write a memoir; published in 2001
• 2000 Wrote and directed the “2000″ segment of the Emmy-nominated HBO movie “If These Walls Could Talk 2″, about the lesbian experience in America
• 2001 Had a recurring role on FOX’s legal comedy “Ally McBeal” playing a woman with Tourette’s syndrome
• 2001 Had featured role in “John Q” directed by Nick Cassavetes
• 2002 Replaced Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Broadway production of “Proof,” the Tony Award-winning play by David Auburn
• 2003 Co-starred in “Prozac Nation”
• 2003 Starred opposite Alec Baldwin in the play “Twentieth Century”; received a Tony nomination
• 2004 Joined the WB drama “Everwood,” as a love interest for star Treat Williams
• 2004 Played a drug-addicted mother who neglects her children in the Lifetime movie “Gracie’s Choice”; received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
• 2005 Guest-starred on FX’s “Nip/Tuck” as a ‘Mafia princess’ about to enter the witness-protection program, who gets a new face from Dr. Sean McNamara
• Family moved eleven times before Heche was 12
• Moved to Chicago with her mother and two older sisters
• Stopped performing and entered therapy after her father’s death
• Wrote, directed and starred in the short film “Stripping for Jesus”