Jesse died from sudden illness on Tuesday, November 14th in Hollywood, Florida. He is survived by his cat, Mojito (Muncie, IN); his mother, Michelle Sebastian (Muncie); father, Mark Sebastian (Las Vegas, NV); brothers Daniel (Indianapolis, IN), Sean (Washington, DC) and Curtis [wife Shelly] (Anderson, IN); grandmothers, Rita Cassell (Muncie) and Jacquelyn Sebastian (Port Hueneme, CA); aunt, Leslie Blair; uncles, Mitch Cassell, Kevin Cassell and Joseph Sebastian; several cousins and a myriad of wonderful friends and adoring fans all over the world.

Jesse was bold and defiant, a maverick artist and performer who carved his own path through life. As a Class of 2000 graduate of Muncie Central High School, he involved himself in many activities. In 2001 he began his professional career with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a dancer, performing for worldwide audiences.

Jesse made the world a better place, and we miss him greatly.

Claudio Acevido:
Life is really a bitch sometimes, I have nothing to say, because you know it, Jesse was great person and always happy & having good times. I had the chance to do two contracts on two ships with him: he always was great, I always will remember the good times we had. Here is a pic of the noisy, crazy and dangerous trio, always on the run of fun.

We will miss you, Jess. God be with you.

Peter and Pilar Alphord:
We can't remember what ship it was where we worked with Jesse, but from what we remember of him, he was a very kind man. His smile always lit up the room when he walked in and he was a very funny guy. He had a very kind heart and very true character. He loved to have fun and made sure those around him did as well. We are so sorry to hear of his passing and send our sympathy to you and his family and friends.

Ky Dobson:
I was on a cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas with my "now wife" Christy McNeil, Jason Woolley and Jesse. We were in Aruba and the boys were being goofy as always, and as is Jesse's style, he picked up a little kids sand shovel, lifted his package and delicately placed them on the shovel, proclaiming, "Balls on a shovel!" It was fun, and whenever I have a Cosmo, I'll drink to him. At least now I have an excuse when somebody asks, "Why the hell are you ordering a Cosmo?! Pussy!" I'll then tell them the stories of my time with a free spirited man that said he didn't want to get old and wrinkly, so he lived his life putting as much fun into a day as he could.

T.J. McCormack, Comedian:
I didn't know him well, nor for very long, but Jesus, I really liked Jesse. He was as sweet and funny and talented as he was good looking, and that's saying a lot.

Heather Mills:
Jesse was my cruising buddy. It seemed that every time I went to cruise he would end up being in the cast ... as a replacement, staying on from a previous contract or just getting started. But my fondest memory is definitely the first time I met Jesse and we went out to party all night ... and ended up trying on costumes back stage of a RCCL ship. I have photos of Jesse in drag and me in the "Vogue" men costumes. He was so much fun and an instant friend. I loved his "if you don't like it ... well too bad!" attitude. Because at the end of the day, he was a sweetheart and would do anything for you. In the picture I sent ... it was the last time I saw Jesse on the Mariner of the seas. I was on board with 9 friends and family and he fit right in. I'm going to miss you, man!! I love you and I will never forget you.

Jason McMann:
I worked with Jess on the Mariner of the Seas. I will always remember him from the first day he signed on to the Mariner. I worked in the Crew Office and remembered thinking "Oh my God, what a fantastic looking guy" and that night a bunch of us were up in the SOB and he walked in. Now, I had had a very bad day that day and he came up to me introduced himself and basically said, "your day is now over, let's get drunk and party!" We did exactly that and my God what a night it was. He created a party just for being there and we all had an amazing time. Jess was the most down to earth person I had ever met and the world is a smaller place without him.

Sonia Selbie:
Ah, my dearest Jessica Rabbit!....The first time we met I remember walking up to him and saying "ooh, look at those eyes! you need to hug me right now! You're lovely!"....It was, it was those eyes, something about the way they always twinkled and even when he was in a mood they'd still be a twinkling!....I have many joyous stories I could share about the ole girl, and most of them involve dearest Kirkums.....but possibly my bestest memory is from last year's Mariner. So, there we are in K-Mart one day farting around and we came across these shirts saying "POPULAR"...after a 10 minute argument about who got the shirt we decided upon having one each and creating our own "Popular Production" company, we sang the song "Popular" from 'Wicked' all around the store and had the daftest of times creating our first production which would of been a pretend CD launch for Kirk with a re-made version of "Drunk Girl"....Of course it never happened but in OUR world that day it was the best launch ever~...Jesse sang that song soooooooo loud and soooooooooo BAD but with passion!..... OH Kirk, wasn't that the night of the "great hair dying event of the year"... remind me Kirk was that ORANGE ha ha!

It's been almost a year since I saw My Darling Jessica, He was a damn good boy....You know he LOVED to read a good book....enjoyed nights home without a drink and was a fabulous listener....I shared some beautiful moments with my little Rabbit, they were all full of joy, freedom and optimisim....One thing you can say about Jessica....he'll had NO REGRETS .... He was just what it said on the packet.....no gimics, no airs, Just Jessie. xxox.... I love you and I will always have those eyes twinkling in my mind....and you know what, you were right ...you ARE "POPULAR."

God Bless my little one, I love you always.

Momma Tink xoxox

Rebecca Sharpe:
"The Beautiful People Club"

Well, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Jesse was a beautiful person, both inside and out. I met Jesse when I first signed on the Mariner, Nov. 7th, 2003. Now Jesse, as we all know, was a no bullshit kinda guy. He couldn't care less what anyone thought about him. The amount of times I have sat in a corner and heckled people walking by, whether we knew them or not, well, I can't even count. But somehow, it was never hurtful, it was always in good fun and we ALWAYS had a blast.

Jesse pretty much had the run of the Mariner by the time I got here. He wasn't exactly easy to miss - how could you miss him with those eyes and that smile? I have no idea when we first started really hanging out. I'm sure it would have been in the SOB, that I can guarantee but it isn't a distinct moment in my mind. The thing is, the rest of the contract is pretty distinct. We would go out and get trashed, his poison of choice being the "skinny bitches" most of the time, mine, well, more of a bacardi girl myself. I remember times in Carlos'n Charlie's, minigolfing in Cozumel, countless nights in the SOB but the one thing I remember is laughing until my gut hurt. That is the one constant that I can think of when it comes to Jesse - he ALWAYS made me laugh, no matter who I wanted to throw overboard at that particular moment in time.

Anyway, back to "The Beautiful People Club." Jesse, Leigh Pugsley and I are all sitting around this one day and I decided that all of my friends were beautiful. (Don't ask me where that came from but I'm sure there were a few drinks involved). We must have sat there talking about beautiful people for the longest time and it was decided that I am the President of the "Beautiful People Club." Why? Because I'm not beautiful, but to be able to hang out with all these people Jesse decided that it was my beautiful personality that brought them all in. I think it is actually Jesse's personality that drew us all to him, in our own different ways but I would like to extend an official invitation to all of you who love Jesse to be part of our "Beautiful People Club" because we are ALL beautiful people. We are also all better people for having Jesse Sebastian as part of our lives.

Oh, and one more thing, before Jesse finally signed off the Mariner he gave me the ugliest camel you have ever seen (some random thing that we all collect during our contracts) I was finally planning on leaving it behind after this contract - well, I will officially have an ugly camel in my house for the rest of my life - as a tribute to Jesse.

Jessica DiDonato:
I think about Jesse and smile, I remember his ability to make people forget their worries and remember that life is about being happy.

Much Love, Jessica

Allan Herring:
Feelings are hard to express, but all I know is that the emptiness I feel is shared by all who were lucky enough to have been around Jesse. His life was a celebration and being around him always made me smile. Just remembering Jesse brings a smile to my face now, despite the tears. Jesse is dearly missed, but his celebration will live on.

Mark Curtis, Environmental Officer:
The hardest thing for any crew member to do is to leave the ship you started on, especially when you have been there for two years. When I got to the Explorer, I knew very few people but it did not take long for two of the hottest guys in the cast to find me and invite me out to the Chamber that first week onboard. Jesse and Jason along with that entire cast were absolutely wonderful to me as I tried coping with such an enormous ship as well as my own coming out, and as a result there was not a single performance that I wasn't sitting in that lower balcony cheering them on each week. There was no doubt I was an RCI productions groupie.

From the world's largest bottle of Belvedere Vodka came many nights when I am amazed I could find my own cabin, although I am quite sure those two helped me find it in more than one occassion. There are even a few photo shots of dancers, tech staff, and youth staff around the ship wearing my officer's jacket, so I always made it home even if my uniform didn't. My favorite memory was when the Sovereign and Explorer were both in Nassau on my 25th birthday and my friends off both ships came to Breezes for the day to celebrate with me. Maria won the girl's bikini contest and no big surprise Jesse won the Hot Male Body contest. I thought then, and I still think today that I have been blessed to have met some of the most beautiful and amazing and talented friends anyone could ever ask for in this world. Jesse will always be the hottest man I have ever met, but also the first one to say hello and offer you a drink with a smile.

Duane Davis:
Jesse had a unique and the most hysterical perspective, on any subject. My mom dragged me to see The Devil Wears Prada earlier this year and there’s a line where some girl says that she’s one stomach-flu away from her goal weight. I was belly laughing at this! Not at what was happening onscreen, but immediately being taken back to the Adventure '03 where Jesse re-emerges from a Norwalk virus induced quarantine and toasts to the disease (over copious amounts of Berringer red at Portofino) for shedding some pounds and his new FIERCE body. The last time I saw Jesse was quite randomly outside the RCI studios in Hollywood. Catching up, I couldn’t believe he was going back to the Mariner, he couldn’t believe I was going back to the Majesty. But its like he said then, "Once there was alcohol, and good times to be had, everything would be fierce!" Here’s to you Jesse, thanks for the laughter, the commentary as you saw it, and all the good times.

Maria "Mazza" Taylor:
"Honey, what's this? What's going on here?"

Oh boy. One word to describe our Jesse is SASSY!

I have so many funny, beautiful & crazy memories of he time I spent with Jesse. The main time I remember the trio, myself, Martin & Jesse, would sit having pre-dinner, after-dinner & whenever martinis in his cabin on the Mariner. He had his cabin decked out looking like a chillout bar with cushions covered in fur, candle light, a noise maker (which I would always turn to make it sound like we were sitting on the front porch with the crickets) & Jesse's favorite thing: martinis... You name it, Jesse would find a way to put it in a martini. We would sit laughing, talking, being all posh and every now and then he would come out with a 'Karen Walker' line. Jesse really wanted to be her, and damn he did her well.

The real Jesse was such a generous person, always finding ways to go out of his way to really please the people he cared about. It is such a shame that this world will be without our Jesse, someone so young, talented, bright, funny, pretty, skinny.... oh the list goes on. He was always ready to go somewhere or do something as long as he looked his best of course. :)

When I meet up with Martin again, it will never be the same without you, but your memory will always be with us.

I will miss our good times you skinny bitch!

Elaine "Vera Wang" Mulligan:
After spending two contracts with Jesse on the Mariner of the Seas, I cannot believe what's happened, but those memories will always live on. Jesse and his Burberry shirt! If there's a picture with Jesse, the Burberry shirt is also there. I'll never forget those nights in Kirk's cabin where there were bottles and cans everywhere, the Russian ice skaters still smiling and the rest of us trying to drink like we were also from Russia. Or the night we had the party in the orchestra pit and who ended up being bar tender? Jesse, of course. There are so many nights with Jesse and so many good memories I'd be here for a year if I put them all together, but I can say i've met a lot of people on ships but you must agree it would be hard to find anybody that came close to Jesse as he had the one thing that most people lack in life, he was always truthful and told you what was on his mind. I will miss you, Jesse but never forget you...........love Vera and her wang

Shannon Roche:
Jesse...When I think of him I just..well...smile! :) He was always there to listen...to CERTAINLY bitch with, to laugh with, (to drink with), and just be yourself with!! He was such a wonderful and supportive friend who even came EVERY single week to that damn jazz set on the Adventure. But I think what I remember the most were our most fabulous photo shoots...(always after straightening our hair of course)! We posed with the best of them...he would always be the first to point out how fabulously tall...thin...and gorgeous we were...and what we could do to be even THINNER...haha..just made me laugh!

What a talent. I just can't believe he's gone, but he's truly in a better place just waiting for us with that big, beautiful smile "toasting us all".

Martin Bessette:
Hey drunk bitch! Yeah it's me, "French Frie" like you use to call me. You see, we were not suppose to like each other. I think that we knew so much about each other before even meeting for the first time that it was all we needed to bring us as close as we've been from the first day we met. I hated you, you hated me... but we actually knew nothing about each other. It took us one night, a few drinks and an amazing conversation to realize that no matter how different and opposite we were from each other, we had so much in common. The time we shared together on the Mariner was unique. You, Mazza and myself.... wow. Those memories, always I'll remember. Thanks for sharing so much with me, thanks for opening your heart to me and thanks for who you were... you deserve this peace now and one day, we'll all be back together, wherever that is. Till then, you'll be in my heart and I'll never forget about you.

Now that you're where you are, you must be able to understand this crazy language that you so wanted to learn! ''Je ne t'oublierai jamais mon ami. Ton image restera à jamais gravée dans mon coeur et un jour, nos chemins se croiseront à nouveau. Chaque fois que je regarderai le ciel, l'étoile la plus brillante sera la tienne et c'est de cette façon que je saurai que peu importe le temps qui passe, tu seras toujours là plus brillante que jamais. Je pense à toi, ton ami, Martin xxx''

Sima, David & Zara Morgan:
May the light shine upon him, and Jesse,dance in God's light forever.

Kristin Gorman:
I last saw him in Florida in late September. I was with Nolan and Evan visiting the Freedom and ran into my little Jesse....was soooooo glad to see him....now I am thinking it was like God let me see him one last time so I could tell him how much he meant to me, you know? He had given me a ring of his when I left the Mariner and I got to tell him how special it was and that I still wear it and think of him. I loved that boy.

Shana Anderson:
Jesse and I spent a contract together on the Adventure of the Seas. In the 4 years I spent with Royal Caribbean, this was one of my favorite contracts and Jesse was a big reason for that! He lovingly referred to me as the Social Ho and I for him, Oh Jesse. We had so much fun!

Jesse understood things...like:

If a date kicks off the evening by ordering White Zinfandel, you have every right to skip right to dessert and ask for it to go.

Wearing a wig and high heels to the SOB on a random Tuesday, demanding they make strawberry margaritas, just because your bored and in the mood, is fine.

Drinking Pusser's Rum and fruit punch out of a jug, rolling your lighter up in the top of your bikini and refusing to wear sunscreen does not a white trash HO make...

Boone's Farm Strawberry Mist still doesn't make you cool or headache free after 25.

It is NOT okay for people who cannot sing to sign up for Karaoke Idol...don't these people get it?? Oh but what entertainment! We judged weekly (partly because of the free drinks and partly because it gave us an excuse to rip on people...not that we needed one).

Photo shoots are for the beautiful...which Jesse always made me feel.

I will miss you.

Love,
Shana

Christine McNeil Dobson:
I danced with Jesse during the Brilliance take out and on the Explorer and he instantly became one of my best friends. Jesse, Jason, and I were inseparable during that Brilliance contract. I love those boys. Here is one of MANY stories that entered my mind.

After 9 weeks of rehearsal in Hollywood we FINALLY got to fly to Amsterdam to meet up with the Brilliance in Eemshaven, Netherlands. Jason, Jesse and I all sat together on the cramped flight playing Mad-libs and getting angry when the flight attendants kept running into Jesse's elbow with anything possible...for 8 hours. We were aware of Jesse's experimental days and of his fondness for the plant easily found in Amsterdam coffee shops so when we got off the plane Jason and I both got pretty nervous when the drug dog started humping Jesse's carry on! Jason and I both said "You didn't, but if you did I'm going back with you" at the same time to a very shocked and scared looking Jesse. We just stood there and watched while security looked at him, called the dogs off, and let him go! I was the one who got called into the other, longer line where they made you open your bags while he got to walk right through. Jesse celebrated by humping me as he did that at least 6 times a day during rehearsals. I will always love him dearly and remember his ability to make me smile all of the time....and his camel toe.

Ashley Clark:
My Dearest Jesse,

My brain is blank, there are no words for me to even speak right now, all I can do is picture you in my head. And each picture that runs through my head is of course, you looking your best, and being sassier than EVA! Not one memory I have of you makes me laugh harder than the next. If it wasn't one thing with you, it was another..... I mean seriously, your life was one exciting roller coaster ride..... and if you weren't buckled up ready for some fun you got thrown right out!!

I have the best memories with you, but I have to say one of my favorites is our " St. Marteen dates" when we would go to airport beach and exfoliate our entire bodies in the sand and give each other massages and do ridiculous poses for the air planes landing!!! "Once a show gal, always a show gal"!!! That was always in your blood! And a DAMN good one at that, I must say!

I'm so sorry you've left us (my Yesse), but apparently it was your time. Life's too short to live it any other way than you did! And I think everyone you've touched in your life knows that through you! I remember something you and I would say to each other before we went out "all night long", it was "Come on, sleep's over rated, you can sleep when your dead". Well, sleep well my friend. Just know, I'll be waking you up when I get there, so be ready..... and I expect a martini in BOTH hands!!

I love you.
SMASHLEY xx

Beautiful Disaster

He drowns in his dreams
An exquisite extreme I know
He's as damned as he seems
And more heaven than a heart could hold
And if I try to save him
My whole world would cave in
It just ain't right
Lord, it just ain't right

Oh, when I don't know
I don't know know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
Such a beautiful disaster

And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful
Or just a beautiful disaster?

He's magic and myth
As strong as what I believe
A tragedy with
More damage than a soul should see
And do I try to change him?
So hard not to blame him
Hold on tight
Baby, hold on tight

Oh, cuz I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
Such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster?

I'm longing for love and the logical
But he's only happy hysterical
I'm searching for some kind of miracle
Waited so long
Lord, I've waited so long

He's soft to the touch
But frayed at the end, he breaks
He's never enough
And still he's more than I can take

Oh, cuz, I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
Such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful
Or just a beautiful disaster

He's beautiful
A beautiful disaster