Actress Hayden Panettiere
Actress Hayden Panettiere

NEW YORK — Actress Hayden Panettiere, whose career spanned more than three decades from child commercials to leading roles on network television, died Sunday at age 36, her representative confirmed to ABC News. A cause of death was not immediately released, and her publicist, Kasey Kitchen, said an investigation into the circumstances remained ongoing. As tributes poured in across social media and entertainment outlets, here are 10 things to remember about the actress and the life she lived on and off screen.

1. She began working before she could walk. According to her Television Academy biography, Panettiere started appearing in television commercials at just 11 months old. By age 4, she had already joined the casts of daytime soap operas "One Life to Live" and "Guiding Light," an early start that placed her among the industry's most seasoned child performers by the time most of her peers were still in elementary school.

2. Her voice reached audiences before her face did. Long before she became a household name, Panettiere lent her voice to the 1998 Pixar animated film "A Bug's Life." She also appeared in the football drama "Remember the Titans" alongside Denzel Washington, one of several early film credits that helped establish her as a working child actor in Hollywood.

3. "Heroes" made her a global star. In 2006, Panettiere was cast as Claire Bennet, an indestructible cheerleader with the ability to heal from virtually any injury, on NBC's science-fiction ensemble series "Heroes." The role turned her into one of the most recognizable young actresses on American television and anchored the show through its four-season run, building a passionate international fan base along the way.

4. She earned two Golden Globe nominations on "Nashville." Following "Heroes," Panettiere headlined the ABC and later CMT drama "Nashville," playing troubled country music star Juliette Barnes across six seasons. The performance showcased her singing ability alongside her acting range and earned her two Golden Globe nominations, cementing her status as one of television's leading dramatic actresses of the 2010s.

5. She became a horror franchise fixture as Kirby Reed. Panettiere first appeared as Kirby Reed in the 2011 slasher sequel "Scream 4" and returned to the role more than a decade later in 2023's "Scream VI." The character became a favorite among horror fans, and her return to the franchise after over ten years was widely noted by longtime followers of the series.

6. Her other film work spanned genres. Beyond "Heroes," "Nashville" and "Scream," Panettiere's film credits included "Racing Stripes," "Ice Princess," "I Love You, Beth Cooper" and the TV movie "Amanda Knox," in which she portrayed the American college student who was wrongfully convicted, then later acquitted, in the 2007 murder of her roommate in Italy. She also voiced and performed the character Samantha "Sam" Giddings in the video game "Until Dawn."

7. She was a mother to one daughter. Panettiere had one child, daughter Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, born in 2014 with her former partner, Ukrainian professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Panettiere revealed earlier this year that she had struggled with postpartum depression and addiction following her daughter's birth, disclosures she said contributed to her decision to give up custody of Kaya in 2018.

8. She opened up about her struggles in a memoir this year. Panettiere published "This Is Me: A Reckoning" this year, a book that generated headlines for its candid revelations about her mental health battles, her past relationships and the years she spent navigating fame after growing up in the industry. The memoir marked one of her most public reckonings with the pressures of child stardom.

9. She endured the sudden loss of her younger brother. In February 2023, Panettiere's brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, died suddenly at age 28. His family said at the time that the cause was cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, combined with aortic valve complications. Speaking to NBC's "TODAY" show two years later, Panettiere described how losing someone who had stood beside her through every major moment of her life had shaken her to her core.

10. Her father remembered her as "an incredible light." In a statement provided to ABC News following her death, Panettiere's father, Skip Panettiere, said his daughter had been an incredible light and a force of nature to everyone who knew her and to the millions who watched her on screen. He asked for privacy as the family processes what he called an unimaginable loss, while her publicist said further details were expected in the coming days.

Panettiere was born Aug. 21, 1989, and raised in Palisades, New York, roughly 40 miles north of New York City, the daughter of actress and producer Lesley Vogel and Alan Panettiere. Entertainment outlet TMZ was first to report her death Sunday, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter, and reported that Panettiere and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, had traveled from Los Angeles to the southern United States the day before.

News of her death prompted an outpouring of remembrance from fans and former collaborators across social media, many recalling her breakout performance as an indestructible teenage hero and later as a resilient country star, a fictional durability that stood in poignant contrast to the very real struggles she spent recent years speaking about publicly. As of Sunday night, no funeral or memorial arrangements had been announced, and outlets including ABC News described the story as still developing, with additional details expected as investigators and family representatives release further information in the days ahead.

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