Actor Anne Heche dies a week after car crash, aged 53

The US actor Anne Heche has died, a week after she was critically injured in a car crash. The news was confirmed by her friend Nancy Davis, who wrote on Instagram: “Heaven has a new Angel. My loving, kind, fun, endearing and beautiful friend @anneheche went to heaven. I will miss her terribly and cherish all the beautiful memories we have shared.

It was announced earlier in the day Heche would be taken off of life support.

Heche was 53 and had two sons.

Many had hoped Heche would make a recovery after a publicist for the actor reported her in a “stable” condition after crashing her car into a house in Los Angeles on 5 August. Firefighters said she had been speaking to them as she was cut free of the wreckage and taken to hospital.

But the actor shortly afterwards lost consciousness and on 8 August representatives posted an update, saying Heche was in an “extreme critical condition” and had slipped into a coma. On Friday, her family said in a statement that she was not expected to survive and that she was being kept on life support to determine if her organs could be donated.