American actress Hayden Panettiere, known for her roles in TV shows such as "Nashville" and "Heroes," has died at the age of 36, US media outlets including ABC News reported on Sunday, citing a statement from her father.
"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," ABC quoted her father, Alan "Skip" Panettiere, in the statement.
The cause of her death was not reported by ABC. Her agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
A former child actor, Panettiere gained widespread recognition voicing Dot, the young princess ant in Pixar's 1998 animated hit "A Bug's Life". Her work on the film's read-along album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
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She shot to fame playing the high school cheerleader with super powers, Claire Bennet, on NBC's serialised hit "Heroes", which debuted in 2006. She also appeared in the 2000 football drama "Remember the Titans", starring Denzel Washington.
Panettiere earned two Golden Globe nominations, in 2013 and 2014, for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Juliette Barnes in the musical drama "Nashville".
She was also part of the satirical horror "Scream" franchise.
Panettiere's most recent appearance was in the psychological thriller "Sleepwalker", released in the US in January 2026, in which she played a grieving mother plagued by sleepwalking episodes, according to website IMDb.
Pressures of stardom
Behind the successful career lay a dark personal history.
In a memoir released in May, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," she described the pressures of being a child star and her experiences with alcohol and opioid addiction and recovery.
Panettiere also spoke of estrangement from her mother, who managed her career as a child and criticised the book.
Paying tribute, actress Viola Davis, who starred alongside Panettiere in the 2016 movie "Custody", referred to her struggles.
Davis called her "an old, wise soul with such a deep heart" and said "your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy".
"I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming. I saw this beautiful Phoenix rising from the ashes," she wrote on Instagram.
Traumatic birth of a daughter
Jay Shetty, a podcaster who interviewed Panettiere this May about her addiction history and the sudden death of her brother at the age of 28 in 2023, said he was in "disbelief."
"You were so special," he wrote on Instagram.
Panettiere had a daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. In one of her final interviews before her death, she told parenting magazine Mome last month that the extremely painful and dangerous birth had left her depressed and made her turn to alcohol.
She then gave custody of her daughter to Klitschko.
"I was going through a really challenging time in my life," she said in the interview. "I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mom she needed me to be."
In an interview with NPR radio in May, Panettiere said she was able to cry on cue just by channeling difficult emotions. The skill helped her career but "the thoughts and the places that I had to go in my head became darker and darker."
"How could that not have an emotional impact over time on you?" she asked.
(the broadcaster with AFP and Reuters)
