Melissa Gilbert can’t help but take the recent deaths of former child stars Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase personally.
“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?” Gilbert, 62, wrote in an essay shared via her Substack on Saturday, August 22. “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, “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.”
News broke on Sunday, August 16, that Panettiere died of an apparent drug overdose. She was 36. Trachtenberg died in February of this year at the age of 39, while Chase died in June at the age of 35.
Gilbert famously starred as Laura Ingalls on the hit TV series Little House on the Prairie from 1974 to 1983 and starting at just 10 years old. She later became the youngest person at the time to secure a star on Hollywood’s iconic Walk of Fame. (Gilbert most recently made headlines for fiercely supporting her husband Timothy Busfield was arrested and charged with child sex abuse after alleged altercations with two male child actors. Busfield, 69, has denied the allegations, pleaded not guilty and has filed a motion to quash the grand jury indictment.)
While speaking about the death of three young women actors in such quick succession, Gilbert blamed an overwhelming lack of privacy for the apparent epidemic.
“We all know the stories of how the entertainment industry uses, abuses, exploits and then throws away its youngest, but for some reason, this trend is getting worse,” she wrote. “My thinking is that it is tied to the invention of the mobile phone. Once a VIP area, lung or anything meant privacy. We could travel to restaurants, events, clubs, etc. and go through the paparazzi into a safe zone. The invention of the mobile phone with camera obliterated that. No everyone is a paparazzo. There is no privacy. What’s worse, is that what was once kept private is now exploited and sold.”
Gilbert also blamed the unrealistic and unsustainable expectations placed on child actors, drawing on her own experience on the Little House on the Prairie set.
“One of the most universal assets and ultimate liabilities I hear about child actors is that they, ‘Deliver no matter what.’ They are referred to as ‘soldiers,’ ‘Machines,’ ‘Pros.’ Saying ‘no’ is something child actors are discouraged from doing. Lest they seem difficult,” she wrote. “And then, there’s the ‘Doctor Show Syndrome.’ That’s the thing that kicks in and enables us to perform when we are sick both physically and emotionally.”
She continued, “I can’t tell you how many times I worked while horribly sick, injured or worse. My father died when I was just 11 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. I was 11, my Daddy had just died and I was shattered. Thank God my character cried in every single episode. That, as twisted as it sounds, was my therapy. My release.”
Gilbert then gave a shout out to Anna Paquin, who issued a call to action among her fellow child actors in the wake of Panettiere, Trachtenberg and Chase’s deaths.
“[Paquin] did put these three tragic deaths together and offered for anyone experiencing similar issues to reach out to her,” she wrote. “I actually see in that, the beginning of a possible solution of sorts.”
She concluded, “I have this image in my mind of Hayden’s little girl who will now grow up without her Mama. She is 11 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 cream from the rooftops, ‘ENOUGH.’”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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