Photo: Getty Images
Hayden Panettiere’s younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, has died. He was 28.
The younger Panettiere sibling reportedly died in New York over the weekend. Law enforcement officials confirmed to TMZ that they responded to a call at a residence around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday (February 19), and although his cause of death remains unclear as of publication time, officials do not suspect foul play.
Jansen was born on September 25, 1994 in Palisades, New York, to soap opera actress Lesley Vogel and fire department lieutenant Alan L. Skip Panettiere. He was known for roles in The Last Day of Summer, Robots, Blue’s Clues, Racing Stripes, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Even Stevens, Everybody Hates Chris, The Walking Dead and more, and even starred alongside his sister in Tiger Cruise, the Disney Channel TV movie that premiered in 2004. In addition to acting, Jansen and his sister also share an appreciation for music and gymnastics, per his bio on IMDb, which notes that he could also play guitar, “do a mean standing back-flip,” and was a black belt in krav-maga, an Israeli martial art.
Jansen posted a photo on Instagram with Hayden weeks ago, on January 24. The black-and-white snapshot captures the two siblings smiling as Hayden appears to style her brother’s hair. Jansen wrote in his caption: “Not the first haircut she’s tried to give me.”
Kasey Kitchen, a representative for Hayden, confirmed to CNN that an investigation into Jansen’s death is ongoing. The news outlet had not reached a representative for Jansen as of publication time.
Hayden, 33, has reportedly asked for privacy at this time.