Hayden Panettiere, an actress best known as Scream franchise regular Kirby Reed and Claire Bennet (aka “the cheerleader”) on NBC series Heroes, has died, ABC News was first to report. She was 36.
In a statement shared with media, Hayden Panettiere’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed her death. “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” the statement reads. “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.”
Additional details on her passing were not provided. According to TMZ, Panettiere and boyfriend Brian Hickerson had traveled from Los Angeles to a South Carolina on Saturday. According to a statement from the Greenville Police Department, they were called to a residence in the area at 1:50 p.m. Sunday after “a report of an unresponsive female…Upon arrival, medical assistance was administered; however, the individual, later identified as Hayden Panettiere, was pronounced deceased at the scene.” An official cause of death has not been released, but police say foul play is not suspected..
Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York. Eleven months later, she was a working actress, appearing commercials before her first birthday. By 1994, she had joined the cast of soap operas including One Life to Live and Guiding Light, but it was her role in Heroes, as an indestructible high schooler, that made her a household name in 2006.
She followed that success with roles on musical drama series Nashville and on the big screen in films including Scream 4 and Scream VI. Offscreen, she was open about her battles with substance use disorder and postpartum depression following the 2014 birth of her daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, with then-fiancee Wladimir Klitschko. “This hasn’t been easy and there were a lot of ups and downs,” she said in 2022. “But I don’t regret even the ugliest things that have happened to me. I feel incredibly accomplished. And I feel like I have a second chance.”
In May, she added author to her resume, with the publication of memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning. In the book, she detailed the challenges she faced in Hollywood, including harassment from high-profile figures while she was in her teens. “One of the things that I was most terrified about, when deciding whether or not to write this book, was that I knew what was going to come along with it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I had to sit with myself and make a decision, and I realized it was more important for me to share my stories and to wipe the slate clean.”
