Hayden Panettiere, the actress who rose to fame as a child star and went on to headline HEROES and the SCREAM movie franchise, died Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina. She was 36.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement. “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.”
He asked for privacy as the family processes what he called “this unimaginable loss.”
Panettiere was found unresponsive Sunday afternoon at an apartment complex in Greenville, according to Live 5 News. An acquaintance called 911, and officers and EMS crews responded but were unable to revive her. The Greenville Police Department said “preliminary findings have not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances,” and the investigation continues alongside the Greenville County Coroner’s Office. Her cause of death has not been released.
Panettiere began acting as an infant, appearing in commercials before she was a year old, and spent her childhood bouncing between soap operas like GUIDING LIGHT and ONE LIFE TO LIVE before breaking out on the big screen in REMEMBER THE TITANS, ICE PRINCESS and RAISING HELEN. She later starred as cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC’s HEROES and as country singer Juliette Barnes on NASHVILLE, a role that earned her two Golden Globe nominations.
She attended the Movieguide® Awards Gala in 2002 for her role in the Movieguide® Award-nominated movie REMEMBER THE TITANS, where she played Sheryl Yoast.
Horror fans knew her best as Kirby Reed, the sharp-tongued survivor she first played in SCREAM 4 and reprised more than a decade later in SCREAM VI. David Arquette, her SCREAM 4 co-star, called her “such a brave and brilliant soul” on Instagram, while SCREAM VI co-star Melissa Barrera wrote, “Rest in peace sweet Hayden.”
Movieguide® reviewed one of Panettiere’s earliest movies, THE DUST FACTORY, back when she was still a child actress, and praised how she “personifies the innocence of the soul in this movie” and simply “lights up the screen by her mere presence.” That early promise carried through a career that spanned two decades.
Actress Viola Davis, who worked with Panettiere on two projects, wrote that her former co-star was “an old, wise soul with such a deep heart,” adding, “Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy.” Bethany Joy Lenz, who met Panettiere on GUIDING LIGHT nearly three decades ago, wrote that she “understood scenes and nuance and human struggle like no child I’d ever seen on camera.”
Panettiere had been candid about her own struggles in recent years. She published a memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May, detailing her battles with postpartum depression, addiction and domestic abuse. She also carried the grief of losing her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, who died in 2023 at age 28 from an enlarged heart — a loss she said in past interviews she would “never be able to get over.”
She is survived by her daughter, Kaya, whom she shared with former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
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