Tributes to actress Hayden Panettiere as coroner finds 'no signs of trauma'
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- Hayden Panettiere died on Sunday at age 36 in Greenville, South Carolina, after being treated for cardiac arrest, with an autopsy showing no signs of trauma and police finding no evidence of foul play
- Greenville County Coroner's Office said emergency services initiated advanced cardiac life support measures but resuscitation was unsuccessful, and the official cause of death has not yet been confirmed
- Panettiere's father Skip announced her death in a statement, calling her 'an incredible light and a force of nature' and asking for privacy as the family processes the loss
- Viola Davis, Bethany Joy-Lenz, Selma Blair, Bryan Fuller, and SAG-AFTRA were among the Hollywood figures who paid tribute, with Davis writing she was 'an old, wise soul with such a deep heart' and Fuller calling her 'more than an actress, she was a muse'
- Panettiere played cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes and country singer Juliette Barnes in Nashville, the latter earning her two Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress across a career that began at age four on One Life to Live
- Her memoir 'This Is Me: A Reckoning,' released earlier in 2025, publicly recounted her struggles with addiction and abuse as a child actor, a context her One Tree Hill co-star Joy-Lenz alluded to in remembering her as 'saddled with so much of a life'
- Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya from her former relationship with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko
Why it matters: The death of a 36-year-old former child star whose recent memoir detailed her ongoing recovery from addiction puts renewed public attention on the toll of early Hollywood fame, while the pending cause of death leaves key medical questions unanswered for a family that has asked for privacy.
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