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According to Hayden Panettiere’s publicist, her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, passed away. He was 28.
According to his sister’s representative, the cause of his death is unknown, and an inquiry is underway.
Jansen Panettiere is well-known for his voice work in “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and “The X’s,” as well as television performances in “The Last Day of Summer” for Nickelodeon and “The Walking Dead” for AMC.
He was born in 1994 to Lesley R. Vogel, an actress, and firefighter Alan Lee “Skip” Panettiere. Following in the footsteps of his elder sister, he explored acting and got his first television role in the renowned Disney Channel series “Even Stevens.”
Jansen Panettiere went on to make more television appearances, including one with his sister in the Disney Channel feature “Tiger Cruise” in 2004. In the sixth season of “Blue’s Clues,” he made his acting debut as Periwinkle. Following that, he proceeded to contribute his voice to a variety of other characters, including a young Stripes in the 2005 animated film “Racing Stripes” and Shovelmouth Boy in “Ice Age: The Meltdown” in 2006. He also provided the voice of Truman X in the Nickelodeon show “The X’s.”
Panettiere portrays Luke Malloy, an entering middle school student who dreads the start of the school year and wishes the last day of summer would never end, in the Nickelodeon television movie “The Last Day of Summer” from 2007.
In 2019, he played Casper, a Hilltop Colony resident, in episode 15 of “The Walking Dead” season 9. This was his final appearance on television. His sister is requesting privacy in the aftermath of his death.