Anne Heche declared brain dead, ‘will be taken off life support’ — report

Hollywood actress Anne Heche will be taken off life support as she has officially been declared brain dead, it was reported on Friday.

Heche, 53, has been hospitalised since shortly after the car she was driving veered out of control in a Westside neighbourhood of Los Angeles last Friday, ploughed into a house and burst into flames, according to police.

No-one inside the home was hurt, but the impact set the dwelling ablaze, requiring a response by dozens of firefighters.

A Los Angeles police department spokesperson later said the cause and circumstances of the crash are under investigation.

On Friday, Daily Mail reported that the Men in Trees actress has officially been declared brain dead and will be taken off life support.

The site, quoting representatives of her family and friends, said she will remain on a ventilator only to determine whether any of her organs are viable for donation as per the actress's request.

Her family said earlier she was not expected to survive as she had suffered “severe anoxic brain injury”.

Heche came to prominence for her Emmy-winning work on the daytime television drama Another World and went on to star in other screen roles, including the HBO series Hung, and films, including Wag the Dog and Cedar Rapids.

She made tabloid headlines in the late 1990s for an affair with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres around the time that DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian. After their split, Heche wed cameraman Coleman Laffoon, but they later divorced and she spent some years after that in a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star in the short-lived TV show Men in Trees.

— Additional reporting by Reuters