Hayden Panettiere, the Final Blow of Child Stardom — and Hollywood’s Shame

Hayden Panettiere never had a childhood. She started acting before she could even walk or talk, appearing in a commercial at 11 months old. By 4, she was working on soap operas — first One Life to Live and later Guiding Light. On that latter soap, a producer noticed Panettiere could cry on cue. “Once they figured that out, it was just like, I never stopped crying,” she said earlier this year.

“You go through life experiences, and the imagery, you then have to go to places that you bring yourself that are so dark and so ugly,” she continued. “And you’re sitting there, then afterward, getting praise and love for it. You’re going, ‘Oh my God, when I feel pain, I get love.’”

We don’t know all the details of Panettiere’s death earlier this month — it was reported that her cardiac arrest was caused by an apparent drug overdose. But when someone who has written and spoken extensively about the trauma she suffered as a child performer winds up dead at 36 (“It’s the most brutal experience, like the stark cold room, and just this row of people judging you,” she said earlier this year), we can guess that yet again the wounds brought on by her adolescent career have at last delivered the final blow.

We can guess this — and immediately do — because it has happened so many times before, like some cruel cliché. The list of former child stars who have died by overdose or suicide, or been arrested and incarcerated, or battled drug addiction and public rehab stints, or endured public breakdowns and institutionalization is so lengthy that it isn’t even slightly shocking anymore; in fact, it’s almost the assumed trajectory. Hayden Panettiere wasn’t even the only victim of this summer — Lilo & Stitch voice actress and The Ring star Daveigh Chase died in June at 35 after years of substance abuse. Last year, Panettiere’s Ice Princess costar Michelle Trachtenberg, who also struggled with addiction issues, died at 39.

You would think the death of one prominent person due to stress put on them by this industry when they were children would set off alarm bells. Or certainly, if not one, then the death of three in 18 months would have people taking to the streets in outrage.

But maybe it’s a question of, to paraphrase the quote attributed to Stalin, the death of one former child star is a tragedy, the death of hundreds is a statistic.

The discussion of Panettiere’s death shows signs of following the same trajectory as those previous cases, or any of the public unravelings we’ve seen before: expressions of concern and Susan Collins-like furrowed brows, with a few snickers and sneers from the cheap seats. 

Then, the subject changes as fast as possible.