Hayden Panettiere, the actress known for her starring roles on the TV series Heroes and Nashville, and for multiple appearances in the Scream franchise, has died. She was only 36 years old.
In a statement to ABC News, Panettiere’s father skip said:
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.
Born in 1989, Panettiere began acting as a very young child. She had multiple roles on soap operas in the 1990s, including playing Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light for several years. But her breakthrough came as indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet, one of the central characters on Heroes, the mid-2000s NBC drama about a disparate group of ordinary people who suddenly gain super powers.
Panettiere played Claire through all four seasons of Heroes. A few years later, she landed the lead role of ambitious young country singer Juliette Barnes on Nashville, playing opposite Connie Britton. Panettiere starred on Nashville for four seasons on ABC, and then two additional years on CMT.
On the big screen, Panettiere’s most notable roles were likely her appearances in multiple entries of the slasher franchise Scream. She debuted as Kirby Reed, one of a new generation of teenage targets for the psychotic Ghostface, in 2011’s Scream 4, then reprised her role 12 years later in Scream VI, with Kirby now an FBI agent hunting a new Ghostface in New York City.
Thus far, no cause of Panettiere’s death have been announced. In his statement to ABC News, Panettiere’s father asked for privacy “as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
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