Hayden Panettiere Has Died at 36

Hayden Panettiere, the actress known to two separate generations for Heroes and for Nashville, has died at the age of 36.

Her father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed it in a statement issued through her publicist to ABC News and other outlets, calling the loss a tragic one. His daughter was “an incredible light and a force of nature,” he said, who had brought love and joy to everyone who knew her and to the millions who watched her work.

A career that started early

She began as a child actor on Guiding Light, then appeared in Remember the Titans. Ice Princess and Bring It On: All or Nothing followed. Alongside the screen work she built a substantial career in voice acting, including the Kingdom Hearts games and Until Dawn. Heroes and Nashville were the two roles that made her famous to audiences who had little else in common.

What the people who worked with her have said

Connie Britton, who played opposite her on Nashville, posted a run of photographs and wrote that this was who Hayden had been, bursting with brilliance and shining brightly. She said she had no words for it, only heartbreak, and told her to sleep easy now.

Viola Davis shared a photograph of the two of them at a screening of The Architect in 2006. She called Panettiere enormously gifted, said that she and Julius had loved working with her, and described her as an old and wise soul with a deep heart. She wrote that she had been burningly curious about who Panettiere was becoming, that she had watched a phoenix rise out of the ashes, and that her trials had turned into her testimony and her testimony into her legacy. She sent prayers to the family and to Panettiere's daughter.

Kelly Osbourne wrote that she would never forget her, and that she would always believe Panettiere had deserved better.

Rosie O'Donnell said simply that she was heartbroken. A former Guiding Light co-star posted a long tribute of her own. Jay Shetty, who hosts the On Purpose podcast, added a message beneath Variety's post about her death. Panettiere had been a guest on that show as recently as May.