Actor Hayden Panettiere, known for Heroes and Nashville, died on Sunday, August 16, 2026. A 911 call has revealed that she may have suffered an overdose, and paramedics reportedly attempted to use cardiac life support to save her. Panettiere was 36 years old.

Panettiere rose to fame in Heroes, a superhero drama series about regular people gaining superpowers, its impact on their lives, and their efforts to prevent future catastrophes. She played Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader who can regenerate, and starred in the entire four-season run from 2006 to 2010.

She was born on August 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York, and was a child star who starred in the soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light. Panettiere voiced Dot in A Bug’s Life and she played the feisty daughter of a football coach in Remember the Titans.

Panettiere had a reoccurring role in Ally McBeal, starred in Raising Helen, Ice Princess, Bring It On: All or Nothing, and was in I Love You, Beth Cooper. She starred in Nashville as rising country music star Juliette Barnes from 2012 to 2018. She was in Scream 4 and Scream 6, voiced and did the motion capture for the Until Dawn video game, and her final roles were in A Breed Apart and Sleepwalker.