'Enough is enough': Melissa Gilbert speaks out following deaths of Hayden Panettiere, Daveigh Chase
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Melissa Gilbert can't stop thinking about the deaths of young actresses. The 62-year-old said the deaths of Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Daveigh Chase feel personal.
“They are gone and the question I have been turning over and over in my head is, ‘WHY?’” Gilbert wrote on Saturday, August 22, via Substack. She blamed the entertainment industry for exploiting young actors and said this has become a “trend” that is getting worse with each passing day.
Such questions have emerged following Panettiere’s sudden death at the young age of 36 on August 16.
Melissa Gilbert mourns the untimely deaths of former female child actors
Gilbert shared an essay titled “Enough Is Enough” and wrote, “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,” she wrote.
“Why are these three, sweet, wildly talented, vibrant, vital young women gone? And why does this all feel so personal to me? I did not know Hayden personally and only worked briefly with Mishy and Daveigh. It feels personal because I was them,” she continued.
“As were Tatum, Kristy, Brooke, Patty, Anyssa, Dakota, Elle, Shirley, Britney, Jodie, Drew and my sister Sara, to name a few,” the 'Little House on the Prairie' star added.
Gilbert further wrote, “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.”
“The real question haunting me is ‘How do we fix or end this before someone else dies?’” she asked.
Toward the end of her essay, Gilbert talked about Panettiere’s daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, writing, “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!’”
Hayden Panettiere’s death throws light on the treatment of young actresses
The tragic death of the 'Scream' actress at the age of 36 has reignited public and entertainment industry scrutiny over how Hollywood treats child stars, young women, and vulnerable performers.
Panettiere’s death prompted former child stars like Anna Paquin and Rose McGowan to speak out about the industry’s failures and the lack of protection for minors dealing with the pressures of the spotlight.
Even Panettiere’s onscreen father, Jack Coleman, shared a lengthy post about how the paparazzi “hunted” the actress when she was a teenager. He also mentioned that inappropriate questions were thrown at Panettiere when she was a young actress.
