Melissa Gilbert Demands Union Action After Three Child Actresses Die in One Year

Melissa Gilbert called on Hollywood's unions to "enact real change" in protecting young performers, writing in a 23 August Substack essay that three former child actresses of one generation — Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase — have died within a single year. Gilbert, a former child actor herself, asked where the union, regulations and privacy protections had been. No union has yet responded.