RIP: Michelle Trachtenberg, aged 39

[thewayne]

Michelle was found in her New York City apartment unresponsive. No cause of death has been announced. For a 39 year old, she has been an actor for 36 of those years! Perhaps most famously for Gossip Girl and Harriet The Spy, for me she will always be Dawn Summers, Buffy's kid sister in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember the utter shock of the reveal that *BOOM* Buffy has a sister? It was an amazing twist in a great TV series, and she was fantastic in that show. It's additionally sad as it's entirely possible that Buffy may be seeing a relaunch with Sarah Michelle Geller coming up: talks are in progress with a good producer, not Joss Wheden.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/michelle-trachtenberg-dead-obituary-1235280880/

Comments

[disneydream06]

Too young. :(
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Quite.  I really hope it was a medical condition that did her in, not drugs.

[disneydream06]

It's a sad commentary that my first thought was a drug related death. :(
I hope it wasn't. :(
Hugs, Jon

[murakozi]

I read yesterday that she'd recently had an organ transplant. Perhaps it was related to that and not drugs.

[thewayne]

Oooh!  Could have easily been an immune/rejection storm!

[disneydream06]

That can be very complicated. :o

[librarygeek]

Right there with both of you. Michelle Trachtenberg was younger than my sister!!!

[murakozi]

I was never really into Buffy. I do know folks who were and hearing she died hit them kind of hard.

And now I just read that Gene Hackman, his wife, and their dog were found dead in their home. :(

[thewayne]

I enjoyed Buffy, it was fun escapist entertainment with lots of snark.  And I'll admit, it was quite surprising and the news of her death was rather shocking to me. Yes, I just posted about Hackman et al.  I suspect CO poisoning, I expect we'll learn more in the next couple of days.

[silveradept]

Ooof, that's no good. I remember her as Harriet and as Dawn, but I didn't get into Gossip Girl (for good reason, I hated the book.) And she was pretty vocal about Joss, so it's too bad she won't be able to get back to that.