Following the death of Hayden Panettiere, Melissa Gilbert is the latest to call for better protections for child actors.
On Saturday, the Little House on the Prairie alum admitted she “did not know Hayden personally,” but explained that her death feels “so personal to me” as a former child actor, demanding unions “enact real change” in response.
“How is it possible that no one in the mainstream media has picked up on this?” she began in a Substack essay. “Within one year, Michelle Trachtenberg, Daveigh Chase and Hayden Panettiere have died. DIED! Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone. Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon.”
Gilbert added, “They are gone and the question I have been turning over and over in my head is, ‘WHY?’ Why are these three sweet, wildly talented, vibrant, vital young women gone?”
Noting that she worked with Trachtenberg and Chase before their deaths, Gilbert continued, “It feels personal because I was them. … We are all members of the same tribe; Female Former Child Performers, and when one of us dies, it runs through all of us like an electrical current. When three of us die so close together, something is very, very wrong.”
Gilbert went on to link the rash of child stars’ addiction and mental health issues to the invention of cell phones, emphasizing the impact they have on media.
“Where is our Union in all of this? Where is the collective outrage? Where are the regulations? Where is the protection of privacy?” she asked. “It really seems like no one cares enough to enact real change. At least, not until the next death and everyone talks about how sad they are and how we must do something and then they forget and get on with their lives until it happens again and again and again.”
Gilbert concluded, “All I know is something has got to be done. I have this image in my mind of Hayden’s little girl who will now grow up without her Mama. She is eleven years old. That’s the same age I was when my father died. And now I am weeping as I type this and I just want to scream from the rooftops, ‘ENOUGH!’”
The newsletter comes as Gilbert’s husband Timothy Busfield awaits trial in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where two boys accused him of child sexual abuse during production on The Cleaning Lady.
Having made her first onscreen appearance at 11 months old in a Playskool toy commercial, Panettiere broke out as a child star in Disney’s Remember the Titans (2000), going on to roles in Ally McBeal (2002), Raising Helen (2004), Tiger Cruise (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), Ice Princess (2005), Malcolm in the Middle (2003-’05) and Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006), all before turning 18.
On Monday, Panettiere’s rep confirmed the actress’ death at age 36 to Deadline, as police in Greenville, South Carolina initially announced that no foul play was suspected. An initial autopsy found no signs of trauma.
