Jenifer Estess (February 17, 1963 – December 16, 2003) was a

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

-born

theatre producer A theatrical producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hires ...

. She began her career as an actor after graduating from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

. Estess was a co-founder of

Naked Angels ''Naked Angels'' is a 1969 American outlaw biker film directed by Bruce D. Clark. Starring Michael Greene as Mother, Jennifer Gan as Marlene, and Richard Rust as Fingers, it provides an insider's perspective at the lifestyle of outlawed bikers. ...

theatre company in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

; she was its producing director until 1993. She helped found the

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

Film Festival and the New York Women's Film Festival. Her memoir, ''Tales from the Bed: Living, Dying and Having It All'', was published posthumously in 2004, while a

TV movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

of her life had previously been aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

in 2001, titled ''Jenifer'', which starred

Laura San Giacomo Laura San Giacomo (born November 14, 1962) is an American actress. She played Cynthia in the film ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Kit De Luca in the film ''Pretty Woman ...

in the title role. Estess also started

Project ALS Project ALS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to identify and support leading scientific research toward the first effective treatments and a cure for ALS. Founded in 1998 by Jenifer Estess, Valerie Estess, Meredith Estess, and Julia ...

, which raises funds for finding a cure for

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

, from which she suffered. She helped raise over $17,000,000 (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) for the Project. In 2000, Estess testified before Senator

Arlen Specter Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican from ...

’s sub-committee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education. "My life and millions of others are in the hands of Congress. We are already seeing the incredible potential of stem cells to replace what is destroyed in ALS, but we need the federal government to mentor research along in the most responsible, humane way." Pointing out that, "non-profits like Project A.L.S. and private industry have started stem cell replacement on the right track," she urged Congress to "do the right thing and take us to the next level with this life-saving science."

Death

Jenifer Estess died from A.L.S. on December 16, 2003, aged 40, at her apartment in Manhattan.

References

Sources

"Jenifer Estess, 40; Fought Lou Gehrig's Disease"
''The New York Times'', December 17, 2003. 1963 births 2003 deaths American activists American theatre managers and producers Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from motor neuron disease Tisch School of the Arts alumni People from Moline, Illinois {{US-actor-stub