She made her film debut in with a small role in The Adventures of Huck Finn. In , she had starring roles in the romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights and the drama-thriller Return to Paradise. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her starring role in the Broadway revival of Twentieth Century , as well as a Primetime Emmy Award that same year for her appearance in the television film Gracie's Choice.
Other film appearances included Prozac Nation , John Q. In , she appeared as a contestant on the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars , finishing in 13th place. Events in Heche's personal life often upstaged her acting career. She was in a high-profile relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres between and , with the pair being described by The Advocate as "the first gay supercouple".
On August 5, , Heche was critically injured in a high-speed car crash. She died at a Los Angeles hospital on August 11, , at the age of Because of Don Heche's often unstable lifestyle and financial situation, the family moved numerous times during her childhood.
The Heche family's precarious financial situation led to the foreclosure of a home her father owned and later their eviction from a rental home. They moved in with a family from their church who offered them a place to live as an act of charity. Her mother and all of the children then took jobs to support the family and be able to live on their own. Don Heche moved to New York City , where Anne and her sisters would occasionally visit him, noticing his declining health.
He claimed it was cancer, when in fact he had developed late-stage AIDS. Although he lived as a gay man in New York, Don kept his sexuality and the nature of his illness from his family. They did not know about his diagnosis and had not even heard of AIDS until coming across an article on the disease in The New York Times about a month before his death.
