Hayden Panettiere, the former child star who rose to international fame on “Heroes” and later earned two Golden Globe nominations for “Nashville,” has died at 36, her representative confirmed Sunday to ABC News. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement. “She was 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.”
Hayden Panettiere
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Her father asked for privacy as the family processes what he called an “unimaginable loss.”
Panettiere spent virtually her entire life in the entertainment industry. Born Aug. 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York, she began modeling as a baby and appeared in her first television commercial before her first birthday. By early childhood, she was working regularly as an actress, including roles on the daytime soap operas “One Life to Live” and “Guiding Light.”
Her early film work included the 2000 football drama “Remember the Titans,” in which she played the daughter of assistant coach Bill Yoast. She went on to appear in movies including “Raising Helen,” “Racing Stripes,” “Ice Princess” and “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”
Her breakthrough came in 2006 with NBC’s “Heroes,” where she played Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader with regenerative powers. The series became a major pop-culture phenomenon, and Panettiere’s character was central to its early success.
She later took on one of the defining roles of her career as ambitious and troubled country singer Juliette Barnes in the musical drama “Nashville,” which ran from 2012 to 2018. The performance earned Panettiere two Golden Globe nominations.
Panettiere also became a familiar face to horror audiences as Kirby Reed in “Scream 4” in 2011. More than a decade later, she returned to the role in 2023’s “Scream VI.”
Her career extended beyond acting. Panettiere sang on several projects, including “Nashville,” and received a Grammy nomination earlier in her career. She also lent her voice to animated films and video games.
In later years, Panettiere spoke candidly about the difficult side of growing up in Hollywood and about her struggles with addiction, postpartum depression, trauma and recovery.
Those experiences became the subject of her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” released in May. The book looked back at a career that began before she could walk and at the personal cost of spending her childhood and adolescence in the public eye.
Panettiere had described struggling to move between the adult world of the entertainment industry and the life of an ordinary child.
“I desperately wanted to fit in,” she told NPR in an interview ahead of the memoir’s release.
The memoir also addressed postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, domestic abuse and personal loss, including the death of her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, in 2023.
Panettiere had one daughter, Kaya, with former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
Her death came just months after the publication of the memoir, which marked one of her most extensive attempts to tell the story of a life spent largely in public — from a baby appearing in commercials to one of the most recognizable young television stars of her generation.