Hayden Panettiere has been remembered by actors she worked with throughout her career.

Connie Britton, who played Rayna Jaymes opposite Panettiere’s Juliette Barnes on Nashville, shared photos of the pair and wrote: “This was Hayden. Bursting with brilliance, shining so bright. I have no words for this sad song. Just heartbreak. I love you girl. Sleep easy now.”

Esten recalled meeting Panettiere when he auditioned for Nashville, remembering how she listened outside the audition room before surprising him with a smile and telling him: “That was so good!!”

Jack Coleman, who played Claire Bennet’s father on Heroes, remembered Panettiere as a “prodigious talent” and said: “She was a tiny colossus who loved to laugh.” Masi Oka, who played Hiro Nakamura, described her as possessing a “beautiful spirit” and “immense talent”.

Cattrall, who played Panettiere’s mother in Ice Princess, wrote simply: “Rest in peace sweet Hayden. Gone far too soon.”

Viola Davis, who worked with Panettiere on The Architect and Custody, remembered her as “an old, wise soul with such a deep heart”.

Hayden Panettiere spoke about the pressures facing young women in Hollywood and the relentless attention of the paparazzi when she was just 18.

Asked about the years since Heroes had made her famous, Panettiere told GQ in 2007: “This business tends to turn your life upside down. For some strange reason, I’ve become one of the targets of the paparazzi. Things get crazy. You try and hold on to that little part of normal that you can.”

On whether the media was effectively pushing young women towards public meltdowns, she pointed to Britney Spears, who was facing intense scrutiny at the time, saying: “That girl was the epitome of beauty when I was younger. And we built her up and just ripped her down, put every aspect of her life under a microscope.”

She added: “Probably made 90 per cent of the stuff up along the way. I can’t even imagine if I had it like she does. She’s someone that I’m rooting for, and I hope she can make that comeback.”

Panettiere’s Heroes co-star Jack Coleman recently recalled the intense scrutiny she faced as a teenager, saying in his tribute to her that she had been “hunted” by paparazzi.

“They were predatory,” Coleman wrote. “No one, especially a teenager, should be targeted that way.”

Panettiere’s death prompted the actor’s previous comments about how she was “fired” from being the face of the brand for speaking out about her postpartum depression to resurface.

“We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing,” the company said in a statement posted to its social media accounts. “For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community.”

“We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time. This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be,” the statement continued.

Hayden Panettiere spoke about finding purpose in her life and looking towards new creative opportunities just months before her death.

“I know that if I surround myself with positive people, I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to,” she told The Independent in May, and said she wanted to write and produce, and release a jewellery line.

“I’ve made my share of mistakes, I’ve fallen on my face, but I’ve always stood up again and dusted myself off.”

She added: “I’ve got plenty of issues, but finding meaning in life isn’t one of them.”

Panettiere said creativity had provided a “lifeline” and given her purpose when she needed it most.

Hayden Panettiere would have turned 37 today, just five days after the actor died suddenly at the age of 36.

Panettiere was born on 21 August 1989 and died on 16 August in South Carolina. She was said to have been looking forward to spending her birthday with her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, in Germany.

A source close to the actor told Page Six that she had been “so excited to see her” and had been telling people how much she was looking forward to spending time with her daughter.

Panettiere’s memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning was published in May, in which she wrote openly about her childhood in Hollywood, addiction, postpartum depression, abusive relationships, and the loss of custody of Kaya.

The ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville’ star, who has tragically died aged 36, was bracingly honest about her experiences of familial estrangement, losing custody of her daughter and the depression that followed the sudden death of her younger brother, writes Katie Rosseinsky

Panettiere’s daughter moved to Ukraine to live with her father, boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018, when Russia had illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and separatist forces were fighting Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region.

When Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, Klitschko, whose brother Vitalii is the mayor of Kyiv and also a former boxing champion, enlisted in the army. Kaya, the outlet reported, was not in Ukraine from the early days of the war.

Panettiere posted repeated messages of solidarity with Ukraine on Instagram in the years that followed.

“I have personally witnessed the strength of the Ukrainian people who fought so hard for their independence and have continued to passionately defend their country over the years. What Putin is doing is an absolute disgrace!,” she wrote on Instagram shortly after the invasion.

“This horrific moment in history sends a terrifying message: the message that in this day and age, in year 2022, it’s okay to violate the rights of free people and allow autocrats like Putin to take whatever they please,” she added.

Ice Princess director Tim Fywell has paid tribute to Hayden Panettiere, recalling the actor’s dedication while making the 2005 Disney film alongside Michelle Trachtenberg.

“It was really upsetting to hear yesterday of the death of Hayden Panettiere at the age of 36,” Fywell said in a statement to Variety. “I remember a brave, sparky, dedicated young actress who lit up the set in rehearsals and then the screen with her vibrant talent.”

Panettiere played Gen Harwood, a talented figure skater and rival to Michelle Trachtenberg’s Casey Carlyle, a science student who discovers a passion for skating.

Fywell described the two as “an amazing pair”, remembering Panettiere as “plucky and determined and perfectionist” who spent hours practising her skating and was “utterly focused on getting every acting take spot-on and truthful”.

“In what was often a tough and technically complicated shoot, and my first Hollywood movie, they were delightful to work with and great to have around,” he said. “I remember them both with huge affection, how they were 20 odd years ago, at that relatively uncomplicated time of their lives, two shining talents, gone far too soon.”

Neutrogena has addressed criticism over its treatment of Hayden Panettiere, saying it understands that the actor felt “unsupported” during a difficult period in her life.

The skincare brand said in a statement on Thursday: “We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing. For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community.”

“We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time,” it continued. “This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.”

Neutrogena vowed to make a “significant investment to a long-standing community health partner” to support women’s health causes and promised to share more details “when plans are in place.”

Panettiere wrote in her memoir that Neutrogena cancelled her long-standing contract in 2015 after she spoke publicly about her postpartum depression. In a May interview with Jay Shetty, she said: “Of all the things that they would fire me over, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me for.”