"She was an incredible light and a force of nature."

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Hayden Panettiere - the actor who shot to fame as the cheerleader in TV superhero show Heroes - has died aged 36.

Panettiere's death was confirmed on Sunday night and no cause of death was given. "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," her father Skip Panettiere said in a statement received by The Guardian.

"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."

Until Dawn.Watch on YouTube

Panettiere received two Golden Globe nominations for her performance as a troubled country music star in the show Nashville - nearly a dozen music songs from which charted on a music billboard - and she appeared in two Scream films after 2011: Scream 4 and Scream 6.

But it was for the 2006-2010 superhero show Heroes that Paniettiere was probably best known, as the cheerleader Claire Bennett at the heart of the story and central to the show's mantra: "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Panettiere also had some notable roles in games. She starred alongside Rami Malek in open-ended, choice-and-consequence horror Until Dawn, which she provided voice and motion-capture for. She was also the voice of Kairi in the Kingdom Hearts series of games.

Earlier this year, Panettiere released a memoir titled This is Me: A Reckoning, documenting her struggles with fame at a young age, postpartum depression, addiction and recovery. She had a daughter with Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Kitschko in 2014, who has lived with her father since 2018.

Rest in peace, Hayden, and thank you.

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