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US actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in TV series Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.
Her father Skip described her as an “incredible light and a force of nature” in a statement announcing her passing.
Panettiere’s career spanned three decades with a string of roles in other hit TV shows and films, including the Scream horror film franchise and romantic comedy Raising Helen.
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Image caption, Panettiere with her parents and younger brother in 2007
Born in August 1989, Panettiere was raised in Palisades, New York, by parents Lesley Vogel, an actress and producer, and Skip, a former firefighter.
She had one brother, Jansen Panettiere, who died aged 28 in 2023.
Beginning her career as a child actor, Hayden Panettiere was just four years old when she was cast on the popular US soap opera One Life to Live.
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Image caption, On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a seven-year-old
Her credits from the late 1990s and early 2000s also included roles in the animated film A Bug’s Life, as well as TV shows Ally McBeal and Malcolm in the Middle.
She starred alongside Kate Hudson in the 2004 film Raising Helen and was beloved by a generation of fans for playing Britney Allen in teen cheerleading movie Bring It On: All or Nothing in 2006.
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Image caption, On the red carpet with actress Kate Hudson in 2004
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Image caption, Panettiere’s big career breakthrough was in 2006
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Her big breakthrough came the same year, when she was cast as another cheerleader – this time with the power of rapid cellular regeneration – in the highly popular sci-fi series Heroes.
The show ran until 2010 and earned a number of awards and nominations, including Emmys and Golden Globes.
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Image caption, Panettiere played Claire Bennet, a cheerleader with healing powers, in Heroes
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Image caption, Panettiere led high-profile protests against dolphin and whale hunting
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Image caption, Panettiere pictured with Charles Esten, her co-star in Nashville, which won her further acclaim between 2012 and 2018
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Image caption, Panettiere had a baby named Kaya in December 2014
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Image caption, Pictured in 2023 and 2024, Panettiere had recently opened up about the struggles behind her success
Panettiere also starred as up-and-coming country singer Juliette Barnes for six series of TV drama Nashville, which ran from 2012 to 2018.
She earned two Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress, and 11 entries on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
She also appeared in the Scream film franchise, appearing as Kirby Reed in Scream 4, released in 2011, and Scream VI in 2023.
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Image caption, Pictured with actress Emma Roberts in 2011
Panettiere began dating Ukrainian former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko in the late 2000s. They had a daughter, Kaya, in 2014, before splitting in 2018.
Panettiere had said she had entered a treatment facility to help with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter.
“It’s something a lot of women experience,” she told US talk show Live With Kelly And Michael in 2015.
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Image caption, Panettiere and Klitschko had a daughter in 2014
Earlier this year, she released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, recounting the struggles of growing up as a child actor and her experiences with addiction, abuse and later recovery.
In May, Panettiere spoke to the BBC’s US partner CBS News about her mother taking her as an “eight-month-old baby into audition rooms”.
“It went from there and progressed into 50 commercials by the time I was five… It just never stopped,” she recalled.
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Image caption, Pictured in New York City in May this year as she launched her memoir
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