Actress Anne Heche Dies in Car Crash... R.I.P

Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress, director, and screenwriter has passed away… She came to recognition portraying Vicky Hudson and Marley Love in the soap opera Another World, which won her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. James Tupper is keeping Anne Heche in his thoughts.

Two hours before her death was confirmed by PEOPLE on Friday, Tupper, 57, posted on Instagram to show support for the Emmy Award-winning actress. “love you forever,” the Big Little Liars actor wrote in the caption, alongside a broken-hearted emoji. In what appears to be a pixelated shot, Heche can be seen softly smiling with her head tilted.

Heche was declared brain dead Thursday night but has been kept on life support for organ donation, and her heart is still beating, her representative said Friday. “My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom,” her oldest son Homer said in a statement Friday. “After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness. Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom.”

“Rest In Peace Mom, I love you,” he said.

“We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend,” Heche’s family and friends said in a statement. “Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy. Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance, will continue to have a lasting impact.”

The actress was driving on Aug. 5 when she crashed into a home in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, engulfing her car and the house in flames, according to Los Angeles police and fire officials. No one else was injured and the home’s resident and her pets were able to escape the blaze unharmed.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, results from a blood draw completed after the crash showed Heche had narcotics in her system, but additional tests were being run to determine more about the drugs, and to rule out which ones may have been present based on drugs administered at the hospital. Investigators told ABC News no alcohol was detected in Heche’s blood sample, however, the blood draw was many hours after the crash and alcohol could have already gone through her system.

Heche’s representative said the actress was initially hospitalized in stable condition. On Aug. 8, her rep said she slipped into a coma and was in critical condition. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable,” her family said.

“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,” her family said. “She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.”

Heche broke into Hollywood in the 1980s on the soap opera “Another World,” for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. She went on to receive Primetime Emmy and Tony Award nominations for her work on “Gracie’s Choice” and “Twentieth Century,” respectively, and appeared in films including “Donnie Brasco,” “Volcano,” “Wag the Dog,” “Six Days, Seven Nights” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” In her 2001 memoir “Call Me Crazy,” Heche recounted her difficult childhood and surviving abuse. She told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in 2001 that her father sexually assaulted her when she was a child and that the family experienced homelessness.

Heche told Walters she relied on drugs and alcohol to avoid her painful upbringing. “I was raised in a crazy family and it took me 31 years to get the crazy out of me,” she said at the time. “I did a lot of things in my life to get away from what had happened to me. … I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.” In recent years, Heche competed on “Dancing with the Stars” and co-hosted the podcast “BETTER TOGETHER With Anne & Heather.” Heche is survived by her two sons.

James Tupper, the father of her youngest son, wrote on Instagram Friday, “love you forever.”