Melissa Gilbert pleads to protect child actors after Hayden Panettiere's death at 36

Melissa Gilbert made a passionate plea for child actors in the wake of Hayden Panettiere's death. Gilbert, 62, admitted that she didn't personally know the "Heroes" actress, but took Panettiere's death personally as she begged for industry changes in a post shared on Substack . "Within one year, Michelle Trachtenberg, Daveigh Chase and Hayden Panettiere have died," Gilbert wrote. "Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone. Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon.