The actor Hayden Panettiere, who has died suddenly aged 36, won worldwide fame at the age of 17 as the Texas high-school cheerleader Claire Bennet, one of the ordinary people with superhuman powers in the comic-book-style TV series Heroes.
Her character has the gift of rapid cellular regeneration – being able to heal in seconds from injuries such as wounds, broken bones and burns. “Think Wolverine from the X-Men – minus the claw,” wrote one critic.
