Updated on: August 17, 2026 / 2:01 PM EDT
/ CBS News
A look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery.
Hayden Panettiere (Aug. 21, 1989-Aug. 16, 2026) was best known for starring in the TV series "Heroes" and "Nashville," and for the films "Remember the Titans," "I Love You Beth Cooper," "Bring It On: All or Nothing," two entries in the "Scream" franchise," and the 2011 biopic "Amanda Knox."
Panettiere began her acting career as a child, appearing in 50 commercials by the time she was 5. At age 4 she was on the soap opera "One Life to Life." She later played recurring characters on "Guiding Light," "Ally McBeal," and "Malcolm in the Middle." She also voiced the character of Dot in Pixar's animated "A Bug's Life."
Her breakout role was the 2006 TV series "Heroes," in which she played a high school cheerleader, Claire Bennet, who possessed the superhuman power of indestructability. In 2008 Panettiere told the Associated Press that the sci-fi series' appeal was that audiences could dream of something bigger: "And at the core of it are these human stories that people can relate to, very rugged. And it's just grabbed everyone in every age group." Panettiere won two Teen Choice Awards for "Heroes."
In 2012 Panettiere starred in the series "Nashville," playing rising country singer Juliette Barnes. Over six seasons, Panettiere did her own singing, earning two Golden Globe nominations and hitting the Billboard country charts. (She'd earlier earned a Grammy nomination for the children's spoken word album, "A Bug's Life: Read-Along.")
Meanwhile, she was struggling with mental health, addiction and postpartum depression following the 2014 birth of her daughter. Panettiere entered rehab in 2015 while filming "Nashville," putting herself into a treatment center. "I was drowning," she told Women's Health magazine in 2023.
In her 2026 memoir "This Is Me: A Reckoning," she was candid about her long struggles with mental health and addiction, and her issues with paparazzi. Panettiere told "CBS Mornings" that the emotional challenges began as a young actress: "Once people figured out that I could cry on cue the way that I did, it was in everything, literally every scene," she said. "And it went from being a kid and having to imagine just that your pet passed away or something, but then as I got older, the imagery became darker and darker and darker, and the emotion that I had to hold within me in order to get those trigger tears going, it became harder and harder to jump out of it. I didn't know where my character started and where I ended … I was, you know, feeling just this deep sadness, and then the people were so happy afterwards. And you do that over such a long period of time — years after years after years — that of course it's going to take its toll on you emotionally." She credited finding the right therapist to helping her heal.
She also served as an activist for environment causes, including protesting the hunting of dolphins and whales, and advocating for the victims of domestic violence.
In her memoir, Panettiere described herself as an "optimist to the core" who refused to be defined by tragedy. She told "CBS Mornings" that her impetus to write the book was to address the stigma of postpartum depression and the backlash she received when she gave up custody of her daughter to the girl's father, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
"I had spent so many years trying to hide as much of my life as I could that it was just, you know, a habit," she said. "I really wanted to share with the world that they don't have to be afraid, that they can live their truth, that they can be imperfect, that being perfectly imperfect is being brave, and it's okay."
During his 26 seasons in the majors, four-time All-Star pitcher Tommy John (May 22, 1943-Aug. 15, 2026) won 288 games, most while wearing the uniform of the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. But despite a career ERA of 3.34, notching 2,245 strikeouts and the second-highest number of wins of any pitcher since 1900 not yet elected to the Hall of Fame, John was perhaps best remembered for the groundbreaking elbow surgery that came to bear his name.
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was a top athlete in high school, and was recruited by the University of Kentucky to play basketball. However, John chose baseball and signed with the Cleveland Indians.
In 1974, while playing for the Dodgers, the left-hander, then 31, tore the ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL, in his pitching elbow. At the time it was considered the death knell for pitchers' careers — that is, until Frank Jobe, the Dodgers' team physician, invented a procedure to fix John's arm, changing baseball forever.
