Anne Heche dead at 53 after weeklong hospitalization from fiery car crash

 

Anne Heche, an actress whose steady film and television career spanned three decades after her breakthrough role in the soap opera "Another World," has died. She was 53.

Heche's death comes nine days after she was pulled from a burning car and hospitalized in critical condition following a crash in Los Angeles. Heche suffered a "severe anoxic brain injury" as a result of the accident and fell into a coma, according to a statement provided to USA TODAY. 

On Friday, it was shared that Heche had been declared brain dead, but remained on life support while she was evaluated as an organ donor. On Sunday evening, her representative Holly Baird told USA TODAY that Heche had been "peacefully taken off life support."