J. Madison Wright

Jessica Madison Wright was born in Cincinnati on July 29th 1984, the eldest of four children. A pretty youngster who enjoyed dressing up and was very much a 'girlie' child, Madison began modeling at the age of five. Her interest in modeling and acting - something she shared with her younger sister Victoria - led the Wright family to relocate to Los Angeles and, in 1994, Madison had her acting debut aged nine in the comedy Grace Under Fire (1993), where she ironically played a small role as a snotty child model. Madison's big break came a few months later when she won the role of ten-year-old True Danziger in the science-fiction show Earth 2 (1994). Although the show was short-lived, Madison thoroughly enjoyed the chance of playing such an interesting character (and try her hand at being a tomboy!) and it also led to a friendship between her mother and the mother of her eight-year-old co-star Joey Zimmerman. After 'Earth 2', Madison went on to portray a sick child in an Emmy-nominated episode of ER (1994) as well as have a co-starring role in the family film Shiloh (1996). She also had a role in the science-fiction film The Osiris Chronicles (1998), which was the pilot of a possible series that was never picked up. By 1999, Madison was losing her interest in acting as she entered her mid-teens, and her family decided to move to Kentucky for a fresh start away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it was then it was discovered she was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a very severe condition that leads to degeneration of the heart muscles, and the only hope of recovery was a heart transplant. Madison and her family were then forced to spend long periods of time in Cleveland where she was being treated although their travelling expenses were eased when they were offered a room at a Ronald McDonald house (a charity which provides a home away from home for families of seriously ill, hospitalized children) near the hospital. Luckily, after a few months on the donor waiting list, she was admitted to the Cleveland Clinic where she received a heart transplant in March 2000, at the age of fifteen. Clancy Brown, the actor who played the screen father of Madison's character in Earth 2 (1994), led an appeal to raise money to cover the hefty medical bills and to support Madison and her family. He also bought her a laptop for her Christmas in 1999. Sadly, on 21st July 2006, only a few days after marrying medical student Brent Morris, she died of a heart attack.