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Hayden Panettiere, Star of Beloved Gen X TV Shows, Dies at 36
The actor had notable roles in films and TV, including 'Scream,’ ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville’
Hayden Panettiere, who starred in many films and TV series beloved by Gen Xers, has died. She was 36.
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Hayden Panettiere, star of television series that Gen Xers loved including Heroes and Nashville, died Sunday at an apartment complex in South Carolina where she was found unresponsive, police said. She was 36.
Panettiere’s father, Skip, announced the actor’s death in a statement provided to ABC News.
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“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. 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,” his statement said.
No cause of death was announced.
In a statement, police in Greenville, South Carolina, said officers and emergency medical personnel responded to a report of an unresponsive female at the Judson Mill Lofts southwest of downtown shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. Life-saving measures were performed, but Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene.
There were no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances, police said, adding they were called to the apartment complex by an acquaintance of Panettiere who called 911. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office was to perform an autopsy.
A publicist for Panettiere did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.
In 2005, Panettiere starred with Michelle Trachtenberg in the Disney comedy/drama "Ice Princess."
Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection
The celebrity tributes to her rolled in quickly.
“Oh my god – heartbroken #hayden,” talk show host and comedian Rosie O’Donnell posted on Instagram.
Viola Davis, who worked with Panettiere on the 2016 drama Custody, called her “an amazing talent” in her own Instagram post. “I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming, she wrote. “I saw this beautiful Phoenix rising from the ashes. Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy. You will be remembered.”
Selma Blair commented on Panettiere’s final post: “I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please.”
Her Nashville co-star Connie Britton shared the following on Instagram: “Bursting with brilliance, shining so bright. I have no words for this sad song. Just heartbreak.”
Sendhil Ramamurthy, who played a genetics professor on Heroes, shared an emotional post about her on Instagram: “I learned a lot from her. She stuck up for background actors when they were mistreated, knew every crew members name, and was so generous with her time.” Costar Dania Ramirez wrote on Instagram that “your love and energy has always transcended this dimension.”
Panettiere spent more than two decades playing characters that resonated deeply with Gen X viewers. Her role as a cheerleader with superpowers in Heroes propelled her to fame in 2006, with the series revolving around the mantra “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”
“I think Heroes is really hot because it’s just a really great combination of everything that people love — they love reality, they love sci-fi and things like X-Men where they get to dream of something bigger,” Panettiere told The Associated Press in 2008. “And at the core of it are these human stories that people can relate to, very rugged. And it’s just grabbed everyone in every age group.”
She went on to win three Teen Choice Awards for that role and was a Grammy Award nominee for a children’s spoken-word album recorded a few years after the release of the animated movie A Bug’s Life.
Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on Nashville, which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on the country charts, spawned U.S. tours, and earned Panettiere two supporting-actress Golden Globe nominations. Panettiere had 11 songs recorded for Nashville appear on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts during the show’s run, including two featuring Britton.
Panettiere also appeared in two of the Scream movies, starred as the title character in the 2009 film I Love You Beth Cooper and played the young daughter of a football coach in Remember the Titans. She had spoken positively about her experience filming Remember the Titans, saying she felt so similar to the character she played — Sheryl Yoast, the opinionated, football-loving daughter of Will Patton’s Coach Bill Yoast.
Panettiere had been open about her struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, including after the birth of her daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
In an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty after her memoir came out in May, Panettiere talked about the custody arrangement for her 11-year-old daughter, who lives full-time with Klitschko in Ukraine. News of the 2018 decision prompted headlines about Panettiere giving up custody of her daughter.
“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said. “That could not be farther from the truth.”
Panettiere and Jim Belushi starred in the 2001 comedy/drama "Joe Somebody."
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Panettiere said Klitschko suggested their daughter live with him full-time when the child was 2, as Panettiere struggled with mental health challenges and addiction. She said she was in a “horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse” while “just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness.”
She entered rehab in 2015, while filming Nashville.
“I was the one who put myself in the first treatment center. I was drowning,” she said in a 2023 interview with Women’s Health magazine.
On Shetty’s podcast, Panettiere recalled the explosion of her fame when she was cast on Heroes, including the first time she was tracked by the paparazzi. When she’d imagined the moment as a younger actress, she’d planned to look chic. Instead, she said, “it was just sheer terror.”
Panettiere’s younger brother, Jansen, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.
Staff writer Donna Freydkin contributed to this report.
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