Jesse Jane, an adult film star who also appeared on Entourage and Bad Girls Club, has died. The actress, whose real name was Cindy Taylor, and her boyfriend Brett Hasenmueller were found dead in their Moore, Oklahoma home on Wednesday after a suspected drug overdose. Jane was 43.
Jane and Hasenmueller were found dead inside the residence by police, who were conducting a welfare check at around 11 a.m., the Moore Police Department confirmed to Oklahoma City’s KOCO 5 TV channel. TMZ reported that Hasenmueller’s employer requested the welfare check after he failed to hear from him for several days. When officers entered the residence, near Northeast Third Street and Hickory Lane, they found the couple deceased. Although Jane and her boyfriend’s causes of death have not been confirmed at this time, Lt. Francisco Franco of the Moore Police Department told The New York Times that both are believed to have died from a drug overdose. A cause of death will be determined by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1980, Jane’s career began when she started modeling for retailers like David’s Bridal and 5-7-9, eventually going on to land a commercial with Hooters. In 2002, she signed an exclusive contract with the Digital Playground studio, going on to make her adult film debut a year later. Jane remained with the Digital Playground studio through 2014, later signing with Jules Jordan Vide. According to Deadline, she announced her retirement from the industry in 2017 and made limited porn appearances thereafter.
“I got into porn right at the perfect time, when porn stars mattered. Porn stars back then, they were big, glamorous. You walked into a room, you turned heads,” she told GQ in a 2018 interview. “Everybody knew who you were because they actually had to buy your product or DVDs, everything. Porn was so naughty, but everybody watched it. Now, no one makes money like they did back then even with toy deals and appearances.”
Outside of her work in the adult film industry, Jane also pivoted to the mainstream entertainment industry. Between 2003 and 2004, she made uncredited appearances on the TV film Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding and the 2004 feature Starsky and Hutch. In 2003, she appeared on Showtime’s reality series Family Business, going on to appear in a Season 2 episode of HBO’s Entourage in 2005. She also hosted Playboy TV’s Night Calls alongside Kirsten Price from 2006 to 2007, and in 2009, she appeared in Oxygen Network’s reality series The Bad Girls Club and was interviewed in the 2009 CNBC documentary Porn: Business of Pleasure.
Jane is survived by her one son, per TMZ. In a statement to PEOPLE, Brian Gross, a publicist for the porn industry, remembered Jane as “a vivacious person who had an absolute and ultimate love for life.”
