Almost a week ago, actress Hayden Panettiere passed away in an apartment complex in Greenville. After the shocking news, fans, netizens, and fellow stars showed their love and support for the star. Veteran actress Melissa Gilbert, known for her work on projects like ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ ‘The Miracle Worker,’ ‘Thicker Than Water,’ and ‘Undesirable,’ also spoke for Hayden, along with all of the child actors and actresses who went through similar issues with alcohol and substance abuse as she did.
Melissa Gilbert’s tribute for Hayden Panettiere
Gilbert herself started in the entertainment industry in the 1960s, when she was a mere two-year-old. After appearing in multiple ads over the next couple of years, she landed one of her biggest and most popular shows. She started appearing in the show ‘Little House on the Prairie’ as Laura Ingalls Wilder. The 62-year-old recently took to her personal blog to share her thoughts on everything that has happened, offering her condolences to the star while also calling for stricter action and more support for child actors to help them successfully transition back into normal life.Along with Panettiere, Gilbert also remembered stars like Daveigh Chase and Michelle Trachtenberg in her post; both of whom had been in the industry since childhood and had passed away.She wrote, “I did not know Hayden personally and only worked briefly with Mishy and Daveigh. 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.”
Melissa Gilbert reveals the dark reality child actors face in the industry
In her post, she also wrote how the industry often takes advantage of and exploits child stars before casting them aside as if they are nothing. She looked back and recalled her experiences as a child actress, revealing many issues going on behind closed doors.Providing more context, she added, “I can’t tell you how many times I worked while horribly sick, injured, or worse. My father died when I was just eleven years old, and I was back working on Little House within months. And not one single adult on that set discussed it with me or offered condolences. I later found out that the fear was I would become too upset to work.” Sharing that she has often been “nearly worked to death a few times,” Gilbert added that she had an emergency appendectomy in the middle of a shoot, and rather than resting, was back on the sets after only three days of recovery.She added, “A few days after that, I got sick with a horrible fever. I continued to film a few more days until I finished my work, flew home, and was immediately hospitalised, hallucinating from the fever. I was on the verge of sepsis,” sharing how bad she felt for causing a hindrance to the show’s filming.
Melissa Gilbert advocates better conditions for child actors
She concluded her post by adding that some action needs to be taken to provide child artists with housing and support. She wrote, “And now I am weeping as I type this and I just want to scream from the rooftops, ‘ENOUGH!’” She also mentioned many other names who had started as child actors in the industry. This list included names like Tatum O’Neal, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, and sister Sara Gilbert.