Celebrity Details:
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.
John Q 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 John Q, 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 John Q ever pins herself down to one way of defining herself. |
