Selma Blair, Viola Davis & More Honor Hayden Panettiere After Death

Celebrity Deaths 2026: Catherine O’Hara, Eric Dane & More Fallen StarsHayden Panettiere is gone but not forgotten. Following the news that the Bring It On: All or Nothing actress died Aug. 16 at the age of 36, her fellow Hollywood stars paid tribute to her. Underneath Hayden's final Instagram post shared in July, Selma Blair wrote, "I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please," later adding, "I'm dying. Please be here." Viola Davis, who starred alongside Hayden in 2016's Custody, remembered her as "an amazing talent." “Julius [Tennon] and I loved working with you,” Viola wrote in her Aug. 17 Instagram post, “an old, wise soul with such a deep heart. I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming. I saw this beautiful Phoenix rising from the ashes. Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy.” “You will be remembered,” the Fences star added. “Rest well, Hayden. Sending healing prayers to your family, your daughter, and all who loved you. May they always speak your name.” Her Guiding Light costar Bethany Joy Lenz also shared heartbreaking memories from their decades-long friendship.“I’m crushed,” Bethany wrote in part, alongside a photo of a younger Hayden. “I knew the wild little blonde. Was she nine? Ten? I was eighteen. She ran through the Screen Gem studio hallways at 222 E44th St. laughing and playing games in between blocking and camera rehearsals. Long, unruly curls trailing behind her. She knew her lines and everyone else’s. Her intelligence was astonishing. She understood scenes and nuance and human struggle like no child I’d ever seen on camera.” Sharing that the pair would “connect on and off over the years,” Bethany noted she felt joy when they “were lucky enough to cross paths.” “I dont understand how this is real,” she continued. “Everything seemed to be turning around. She was coming BACK to life, wasn’t she? It’s too young and there’s still so much more life. And her daughter…. Hayden, you are surround by love. I’m sorry for every moment I didn’t reach out or check in. This can’t be real..”Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesIndeed, her Scream costar Melissa Barrera wrote on her Instagram Stories Aug. 16, “Rest in peace sweet Hayden.” Podcaster Jay Shetty—who sat down with Hayden in May for an emotional conversation about her sobriety journey and the death of her brother—shared he was in "disbelief" at her death. "You were so special," he wrote on his Instagram Stories alongside a clip of her podcast episode. "May you always be protected and peaceful." While announcing the news of his daughter’s death, Skip Panettiere asked for privacy so that he and his family could “process this unimaginable loss.""It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” he shared in an Aug. 16 statement to ABC News. “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.” Hayden’s cause of death has not been yet shared. Three years before her death, Hayden’s brother Jansen Panettiere suddenly died at the age of 28 from an enlarged heart coupled with aortic valve complications, according to his family. Earlier this year, the Remember the Titans actress—mom to daughter Kaya, 11, with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko—detailed how often she battled the grief she felt since her brother’s death. Jeff Neira/Disney via Getty Images"It's all the time," she told E! News in May. "It just evolves, especially with a sibling and being the older sibling. You're just riddled with guilt that you didn't do your job." Hayden added, "I miss him all the time. I didn't think I would have to do life without him, but I'm grateful that I had the time I had with him." For a look back at Hayden’s life in photos, keep scrolling… Photo by Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images1994Photo by Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images1996Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images1998Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage2001Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images2003Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images2004Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage for ABC Cable Networks Group2004Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images2005Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage2006Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic2006Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images2008Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)2010Jason Merritt/Getty Images2012Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images2013Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images2014Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Time Warner Cable2014Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images2015Rick Diamond/Getty Images2016Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic2017Hayden Panettiere/Twitter 2018Amanda Edwards/Getty Images2019 Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images2022Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images2023Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images2024Jeff Neira/Disney via Getty Images2026For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App