Actress Anne Heche died at the age of 53 a week after she sustained severe injuries in a car crash. Her death was confirmed by family and friends on Friday, August 12th after previously revealing they made the difficult decision to take her off life support.

The tragic news comes one week after Heche crashed her car into a Mar Vista home on August 5th causing the house and her car to ignite. Due to the horrific crash she "suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma," a rep for her family said Friday morning. "Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit. More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light," the statement read.

Heche found fame portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World which ran from 1987 to 1991. The roles earned her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. Her star rose further in the late 1990s for roles in films like Donnie Brasco (1997), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Psycho (1998), and others.

In the early 2000s, Heche pivoted to independent films and television with roles in Prozac Nation and a recurring role in the fourth season of the TV series Ally McBeal. She made her Broadway debut in 2002 with a production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof. Heche also acted opposite Alec Baldwin in the play Twentieth Century which earned her a nomination for Best Actress in a Play at the 2004 Tony Awards.

She worked steadily in film, television, and theater until her accident. In fact, Heche had just wrapped filming on the Lifetime movie Girl in Room 13 which exposes the dark underworld of the human-trafficking industry. The EVP and head of programming for Lifetime Networks previously said the film would still premiere in September as planned.

Heche is survived by her two children Homer Laffoon and Atlas Heche Tupper, whom she shares with her exes Coley Laffoon and James Tupper.

Meet Your Community Leaders