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Actress Remembered as ‘Incredible Light’
American actress Hayden Panettiere, who rose to fame as a child star before becoming known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36, her father confirmed in a statement .
Her father, Skip Panettiere, described her as “an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her, and to the millions who watched her onscreen.” He asked for privacy as the family grieves. No cause of death has been made public.
A Career Spanning Three Decades
Panettiere’s career spanned three decades. She was cast on the soap opera One Life to Live at just four, made her film debut voicing Dot in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life at nine, and appeared alongside Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans in 2000.
She found her biggest breakthrough playing cheerleader Claire Bennet in the NBC sci-fi drama Heroes from 2006 to 2010. She later earned two consecutive Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress playing an ambitious country singer in the musical drama Nashville, for which she also recorded music that charted on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list. She also appeared in the Scream franchise, playing Kirby Reed in Scream 4 and returning as an FBI agent in Scream VI.
Personal Struggles and Memoir
Earlier this year, Panettiere released a memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she wrote candidly about her struggles with addiction, abuse, postpartum depression, and the loss of her younger brother, Jansen, who died in 2023 at 28. She shared custody of her daughter, Kaya, with former partner Wladimir Klitschko, and gave him full custody in 2018 while she sought treatment.
Tributes Pour In
Tributes have come from across the entertainment industry, including actresses Selma Blair and Beverley Mitchell, Scream VI co-star Melissa Barrera, singer JoJo, TV host Rosie O’Donnell, and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. Fans have also flooded her final Instagram post with messages recalling her impact on their childhoods.
She is survived by her daughter, Kaya.
