In 1998, Heche landed her first leading role opposite Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights, which saw the pair marooned on a deserted island. She later said Ford had personally intervened to make sure she got the part after the studio became hesitant due to her sexuality.
“He said, ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn who you’re sleeping with. We have a romantic comedy to make. Let’s make it the best one that’s ever happened,’” she told the New York Post in 2021.
“That is why Harrison Ford is my hero,” she continued. “To stand behind me at such a time when the force of what I was standing up for could have been toppled.”
Heche starred in Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of Psycho in the doomed motel guest role originally played by Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchock’s 1960 classic. But the film was poorly received by critics and audiences.
Her career soon began to regress and she would never again get top billing in a movie released in theaters. Instead, she played more supporting roles in films like Birth (2004).
Her relationship with DeGeneres ended in 2000, and Heche then suffered a mental health crisis, abandoning her car and entering a stranger’s house.
Heche would later be married to camera operator Coleman Laffoon between 2000 and 2007, and she dated actor James Tupper for 10 years after meeting him on the set of Men in Trees. She had a son with each of them.
Heche also acted widely on television, appearing in small roles in Everwood, Nip/Tuck, Ally McBeal, and Hung.
In recent years, Heche acted in TV roles on Aftermath, The Legend of Korra, Quantico, and Chicago P.D. She was also a contestant on the 2020 season of Dancing With the Stars.
Although her career never reached A-list status, she later said that her boldness in going public with a same-sex relationship was one of the things she was most proud of.
“Those repercussions that happened, are to me what has created a part of the change,” she said. “I’m a part of it. It is a badge of honor.”
Heche is survived by her sons, Atlas and Homer, who also released a statement.
“After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness,” he said. “Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom.”
