By Ananya Palyekar
Aug 17 (Reuters) - American actress Hayden Panettiere, known for playing a cheerleader with superpowers and a country music star on the television shows "Heroes" and "Nashville" respectively, has died aged 36, her family said in a statement issued by her publicist on Sunday.
The two-time Golden Globe nominee was found unresponsive at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, and pronounced dead at the scene, the city's police department said in a statement. Her death was being
investigated, but there were no signs of foul play, the police said.
It came only a few months after the May release of her memoir "This Is Me: A Reckoning," which recounted the difficulties of childhood stardom, trauma around the difficult 2014 birth of her daughter and her subsequent battles with postpartum depression and alcohol addiction.
"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," her father, Alan "Skip" Panettiere, said in a statement.
A former child actor, Panettiere gained recognition voicing Dot, the young princess ant in Pixar's 1998 animated hit "A Bug's Life." Her work on the film's read-along album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
She shot to fame playing a high school cheerleader with superpowers, Claire Bennet, on NBC's serialized hit "Heroes," which debuted in 2006. She also appeared in the 2000 football drama "Remember the Titans," starring Denzel Washington.
Panettiere earned two Golden Globe nominations, in 2013 and 2014, for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Juliette Barnes in the musical drama "Nashville."
She was also part of the satirical horror "Scream" movie franchise.
Panettiere's most recent appearance was in the psychological thriller "Sleepwalker," released in January 2026, playing a grieving mother plagued by sleepwalking episodes.
Her colleagues and friends in Hollywood reacted with shock and grief on Monday.
Viola Davis, her co-star in the 2014 drama "Custody," remembered Panettiere as "an old, wise soul with such a deep heart" in a tribute on social media.
"Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy," the Oscar winner wrote.
Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya, whom she shared with former fiancé and Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Kaya lives with Klitschko in Ukraine, Panettiere said this year.
Her brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, 28, died in 2023 from complications related to an enlarged heart and an aortic-valve condition, the family told U.S. media that year.
In May, a sometimes tearful Panettiere appeared on the "On Purpose" podcast to discuss her newly published memoir, which she said she hoped would help others struggling with addiction or postpartum depression.
"I finally feel like I have shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity," she told the podcast host Jay Shetty. "And that means I've closed one door and another door is opened, and I can feel it opened and I can feel all the exciting possibilities. I feel like I have a lot more life to live."
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Clarence Fernandez and Chris Reese)
