Hayden Panettiere Dies at 36, Farewell to the Star of Heroes and Until Dawn
The actress, who rose to fame as Claire Bennet in Heroes and was also known for Nashville, Scream, and Until Dawn, began working as a child. The cause of death has not been released.
Hayden Panettiere died on Sunday, August 16, at the age of 36. The news was confirmed by the actress's father, Alan “Skip” Panettiere, through a statement provided to ABC News, and subsequently by her representative to other US media outlets. At present, a cause of death has not been released; her spokesperson Kasey Kitchen told NBC News that the circumstances are still under investigation.
Panettiere would have turned 37 on August 21. Her career began when she was a child, with commercials and television productions, and then spanned over three decades of film and television. International recognition came primarily in 2006 with Claire Bennet in Heroes, the cheerleader with regenerative abilities who became one of the iconic faces of the NBC series.
In subsequent years, Panettiere's name became associated primarily with Juliette Barnes in Nashville, a role that earned her two Golden Globe nominations, and with Kirby Reed in the Scream saga, a character she first played in Scream 4 and then again in Scream VI. Her film credits also include Remember the Titans and the recent psychological thriller Sleepwalker, released in the United States in January 2026.
For video game audiences, however, Panettiere is primarily linked to Kingdom Hearts. She was the original English voice of Kairi in the first Kingdom Hearts in 2002, returning to voice the character in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Her relationship with the Square Enix saga also extended to Xion, whom she voiced in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.
Her involvement was even more evident in Until Dawn, the narrative horror game originally released on PlayStation 4 in 2015 and then as a remake in 2024. Panettiere played Samantha “Sam” Giddings, one of the eight controllable protagonists, contributing to the character not only with her voice but also with her acting performance.
Just a few months ago, she publicly shared her story in This Is Me: A Reckoning, an autobiography published on May 19, 2026, by Grand Central Publishing. In the book, Panettiere recounted her long experience as a child actress and several complex moments of her private and professional life.
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