Hayden Panettiere beamed in playful snap with pal weeks before her death at 36
“Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere was beaming in a playful snap with her pal that she shared weeks before her death at the age of 36.
The New York-born actress winked and stuck her tongue out in the close-up black and white picture taken with her photographer friend Randall Slavin.
Slavin had his arm wrapped around Panettiere and her arm was resting on his shoulders.
“Good times and good friends,” she captioned the July 27 snap.
Panettiere’s sudden death was announced by her father Skip Sunday night.
“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 said in a statement to Page Six.
“We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
A cause of death has yet to be revealed, but a source close to the actress told TMZ she had been complaining about back pain during the past year.
The outlet also reported that Panettiere and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson had boarded a flight out of Los Angeles on Saturday. Hickerson’s family is said to be aware of Panettiere’s death, according to TMZ sources.
Panettiere leaves behind her 11-year-old daughter Kaya, whom she shared with the former heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
She gave birth to Kaya in 2014 before relinquishing custody of her only child amid her struggles with addiction and postpartum depression in 2018.
“I mean, it was the worst signing those [custody] papers, the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever, ever had to do in my life,” she told “Red Table Talk” in September 2022.
Klitschko has not yet spoken out about her death.
“Nashville” star Panettiere, born in August 1989, starred in commercials as a child before landing gigs on soap operas like “One Life to Live” in 1994 and “Guiding Light” in 1997.
“My introduction to acting was actually at 11 months old,” Panettiere told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2023.
“Playskool Toy Train was my first commercial, but, I don’t know if that would really be an introduction to acting, because I don’t think acting was involved at that point. I didn’t have lines, I was just playing.”
She was best known for her roles as cheerleader Claire Bennet on “Heroes” and country music star Juliette Barnes on “Nashville.”
Panettiere played Kirby Reed in the 2011 film “Scream 4,” a role she would reprise in “Scream VI” in 2023.
She also starred in the comedy drama “Ally McBeal” in 2002, and “I Love You, Beth Cooper” in 2009.
Her final credited acting role came in the Brandon Auman psychological thriller “Sleepwalker,” which was released in January and starred Justin Chatwin and Beverly D’Angelo.
