'Heroes' Actress Hayden Panettiere Dies at 36
'Heroes' Actress Hayden Panettiere Dies at 36
The News
Actress Hayden Panettiere died Sunday at 36.
Police said she was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday, and that lifesaving measures were attempted, according to the Associated Press. Her father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed the death in a statement to ABC News.
Investigators say no foul play is suspected. An official cause of death has not been released and remains pending.
Panettiere broke through two decades ago as the cheerleader with superpowers on NBC's "Heroes," then won a second career as a country singer-actress on ABC's "Nashville." Her credits also include "Remember the Titans" and "Scream VI." She began working in 1996.
Timeline
Panettiere's screen career begins as a child actress.
She plays Claire Bennet on "Heroes," the role that made her famous.
As Juliette Barnes on "Nashville," she earns two Golden Globe nominations for supporting actress. Eleven of her songs from the show chart on Billboard's Hot Country Songs.
Her younger brother Jansen Panettiere, also an actor, dies of a heart condition at 28.
She publishes a memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," about growing up in public and her struggles with addiction and mental health.
In what became her final interview, she says she felt she had "a lot more life to live."
She is found unresponsive in Greenville, South Carolina, shortly before 2 p.m.
Reactions
Tributes from former co-stars and other Hollywood figures came in through Monday, with Time and TMZ reporting an outpouring across the industry over a death that caught colleagues completely off guard.
The family has not released further details beyond her father's confirmation.
Reporting on the cause is so far unofficial and should be treated that way: Page Six said 911 dispatch audio it obtained referred to an overdose, and TMZ, which published photos of a fire engine and a coroner's vehicle at the scene, described a suspected drug overdose. Police have confirmed only that no foul play is suspected. The Daily Mail reported that in the months before her death Panettiere had trouble walking unaided and used crutches because of a back injury whose cause was not made public.
What's Next
The coroner's determination of the cause of death is pending. No funeral arrangements have been announced publicly.
Panettiere's daughter, now 11, lives with her former partner, the Ukrainian former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, in Ukraine.
More
Panettiere spent most of her life on camera and was unusually direct about what that cost her — alcohol, postpartum depression, and the loss of her brother three years ago were all subjects she wrote about this year rather than hid. That is the reason her death at 36, with the cause still officially unknown, hit Hollywood as hard as it did.
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