Hayden Panettiere, star of ‘Nashville’ and ‘Heroes,’ dies at 36

The actor Hayden Panettiere at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute gala in New York on May 5, 2014. Panettiere, a child actress who later won acclaim in TV series as a cheerleader with special powers on “Heroes” and a troubled country diva on “Nashville,” and who spoke openly about her mental health struggles, has died in South Carolina. She was 36. (Josh Haner/The New York Times)

By MATT STEVENS

Hayden Panettiere, a child actress who later won acclaim for her roles on television as a cheerleader with special powers on “Heroes” and a troubled country diva on “Nashville,” and who spoke openly about her mental health struggles, died Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina. She was 36.

Panettiere’s death was confirmed by her father, Skip Panettiere, in a statement that was provided to The New York Times by his daughter’s publicist.

A statement from the Greenville Police Department said that around 1:51 p.m. Sunday, officers and emergency personnel responded to a report of an unresponsive female at an apartment complex in the city’s Judson Mill district, west of downtown. They administered medical assistance, but the woman, identified as Panettiere, was pronounced dead at the scene. An unidentified acquaintance of Panettiere’s placed the call to 911, police said.

A preliminary investigation, the statement said, had “not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances,” though the case remains open.

A two-time Golden Globe nominee, Panettiere had lived her life in front of the cameras since she appeared in a commercial when she was 11 months old. Ten years later, already experienced onscreen, she made a mark as a sharp-tongued coach’s daughter in “Remember the Titans” (2000), starring Denzel Washington.

In 2002 — when she was what the Times called “an effervescent blonde with enough spunk for a family of four” — she played the long-lost daughter of the title character on the hit series “Ally McBeal.”

“I’ve always wanted to do an action film,” she told the Times then. “‘Terminator,’ ‘X-Men,’ stuff like that. And to be a crime fighter.” But, she added, “I also like the really, really deep stuff.”

She played the supernaturally gifted cheerleader Claire Bennet on “Heroes” (2006-10), and the rising music star Juliette Barnes on “Nashville,” for which she was nominated for a supporting-actress Golden Globe in 2013 and 2014. She was Kirby Reed, a quirky, sassy best friend, in the film “Scream 4” (2011), and reprised the role in “Scream VI” (2023).

“Hayden is a real powerhouse,” Wes Craven, the director of “Scream 4,” said while promoting the film. “Tremendous technical ability. Able to bring enormous emotionalities to something very quickly. Smart. Just so full of life and laughter and fun.”

Panettiere’s life in the public eye took a toll, as she recounted in a memoir published this spring, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.” She said she suffered from body dysmorphia as a result of invasive tabloid press coverage when she was a teenager.

In 2009, she met Ukrainian champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko. They got engaged, and she gave birth to their daughter, Kaya, in 2014. Panettiere said she suffered from postpartum depression, and turned to alcohol and opioids to self-medicate.

She ended up leaving “Nashville” in 2015, during its fourth season, to go to a treatment facility for her depression, but she returned several months later and was part of the cast until the show ended in 2018. Her character also suffered from postpartum depression and battled addiction; Panettiere said the writers and producers of “Nashville” intentionally used her experiences to inform Juliette’s story lines.

She told the Times in 2023 that during this period, she would often wake up shaking, and would need an entire bottle of alcohol to get through the day — unless she used opioids to help her not drink.

When her daughter was 3, Klitschko asked Panettiere to sign papers granting him sole custody. She told the Times in May that she had eventually formed “an incredible bond” with Kaya, who lives in Europe. “I dare say we even have a friendship,” Panettiere said.

Hayden Lesley Panettiere was born on Aug. 21, 1989, and raised in Palisades, New York, the older of two children of Lesley Vogel, an actress, and Alan Lee Panettiere, known as Skip, a captain in the New York Fire Department.

Her mother got her into modeling, and shuttled her to auditions. In her memoir, Panettiere wrote that she had been in about 50 commercials by the time she was 5, and said that her mother pushed her to succeed — perhaps too strongly.

“You always want to think the best of your parents and see them in the brightest light,” she told the Times in May. “But there were a lot of things done with an approach that was not about my mental health or what was emotionally or mentally safe for me to do. That’s a tough realization.”

She appeared as a child on the soap operas “One Life to Live” and “Guiding Light” — a role that between 1996 and 2000 required her to shoot her mother’s lover, be kidnapped and battle leukemia — and had other parts, including a voice role in the 1998 animated film “A Bug’s Life” and her part on “Ally McBeal,” before being cast in “Heroes.”

When she was 18, her parents separated, and Panettiere became part of an eight-year divorce battle.

Before she became sober, after an eight-month period in rehab, Panettiere was in a relationship with Brian Hickerson. In 2021, he served time in jail after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring her.

Her brother, Jansen, died in 2023, at 28, from heart complications. She is survived by her parents and daughter.

In May, Panettiere told the Times that, as she thought about the rest of her career, she would perhaps try her hand at producing or directing. Or she might create a jewelry or makeup line, she suggested, or start a lifestyle brand.

She had, she said, a “laundry list of aspirations.”