Cynthia Ann Howell (July 16, 1980 – January 24, 2024), known professionally as Jesse Jane, was an American
pornographic film actress. She became one of the few adult film performers of the 2000s to make the transition into mainstream film and television roles.
Jane was an exclusive contract performer for
Digital Playground between 2002 and 2014, starring in the ''
Pirates'' series of pornographic films. She retired from the adult film industry in 2017 after a career spanning nearly two decades. She was a member of the
NightMoves Hall of Fame,
XRCO Hall of Fame, and the
AVN Hall of Fame.
Early life
Jane was born Cynthia Ann Howell on July 16, 1980, in
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
. According to a 2006 interview she gave to The ''
Oklahoma Gazette'', her family relocated to the Oklahoma City area where her parents worked at
Tinker Air Force Base. In 1998, she graduated with honors from
Moore High School.
Career
Before securing a position in a commercial for restaurant chain
Hooters
Hooters is the registered trademark used by two American restaurant chains: Hooters, Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida, and Hooters of America, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by the private investment firm Nord Bay Capital (with Tr ...
, Jane had previously modeled for retailers such as
5-7-9 and
David's Bridal. She subsequently ascended the ranks within the Hooters organization, ultimately attaining the role of regional training coordinator. She later made the decision to transition into a full-time career as a
Hawaiian Tropic bikini model.
Pornographic film
Jane avoided the "
shock value" trend prevalent in mid-2000s pornography, according to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
She signed an exclusive contract with the adult film production company
Digital Playground,
appearing in ''
Pirates'' (2005) and its sequel, ''
Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge'' (2008), as a ship's first officer on a mission against a group of evil pirates. The films, which respectively cost $1 million and $8 million to produce, were among the highest-budget pornographic films ever made.
In 2006, Jane and
Kirsten Price became the hosts of
Playboy TV's most popular live show, ''
Night Calls''; Jane also hosted the
AVN Awards
The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...
that year.
She was named December's Booble Cover Girl of the Month.
Jane was the sex columnist for ''Chéri'' and ''
Ralph'' magazines beginning in 2007.
Later that year, she hosted Playboy TV's ''
Naughty Amateur Home Videos'', and ''The New York Times'' reported that Jane intended to have her
breast enhancement surgery re-done for
high-definition movies.
She hosted the
F.A.M.E. Awards in 2008,and the
XBIZ Awards in 2008 and 2011.
Jane launched a line of signature
sex toys circa 2010.
She was the ''Australian Penthouse'' Pet of the Month in November 2010. Jane hosted the AVN Awards again in 2013.
In 2011, 2012, and 2014, she was named by
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
as one of the twelve most popular stars in porn.
In 2017, Jane announced that she would retire from the adult industry, although she briefly returned in 2019 to shoot her first interracial scene for Blacked.com.
Mainstream film, television, and other media
Jane became one of the few adult film performers of the 2000s to make the transition into mainstream Hollywood roles. In 2003, she had an uncredited appearance in ''
Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding'' and appeared in the reality TV series ''
Family Business
A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by Consanguinity , blood, marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business a ...
''.
In 2004, Jane made a
cameo appearance
A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
in the film ''
Starsky & Hutch'', appeared on the cover of
Drowning Pool's second studio album ''
Desensitized'', and in the music video for Drowning Pool's single "Step Up".
She was a guest star on the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
dramedy series ''
Entourage''.
She also appeared in the reality TV series ''
Bad Girls Club'' and ''
Gene Simmons Family Jewels''.
In a 2009 CNBC documentary titled ''Porn: Business of Pleasure'', Jane is the focus of the final six-minute segment, which details her career and her life outside the porn industry.
Later that year she appeared in the film ''
Middle Men''.
In 2011, she appeared in the film ''
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star''.
Personal life and death
In 2000, Jane gave birth to her son.
She married her husband, Rich Taylor, in 2005. On March 1, 2012, Jane announced on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
that she was getting divorced.
On January 24, 2024, Jane and her boyfriend, Brett Hasenmueller, were found dead from an apparent drug overdose at their home in
Moore, Oklahoma.
An autopsy report later confirmed that she died from an overdose of
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
and
fentanyl
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic (pain medication). It is 30 to 50 times more Potency (pharmacology), potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Its primary Medici ...
.
Awards
Selected filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jane, Jesse
1980 births
2024 deaths
21st-century American actresses
American pornographic film actresses
AVN Award winners
Actresses from Fort Worth, Texas
Pornographic film actors from Texas
Drug-related deaths in Oklahoma