{"id":276992,"date":"2025-04-08T12:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T12:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/gossip-girl-star-michelle-trachtenberg-dies-at-39-blake-lively-david-boreanaz-mourn-her-demise-remember-her-as-electricity\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T12:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T12:41:04","slug":"gossip-girl-star-michelle-trachtenberg-dies-at-39-blake-lively-david-boreanaz-mourn-her-demise-remember-her-as-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/gossip-girl-star-michelle-trachtenberg-dies-at-39-blake-lively-david-boreanaz-mourn-her-demise-remember-her-as-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg dies at 39: Blake Lively, David Boreanaz mourn her demise; remember her as \u2018electricity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michelle Trachtenberg, a former child star who appeared in the 1996 Harriet the Spy hit movie and went on to co-star in two buzzy millennial-era TV shows \u2014 Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl \u2014 has died. She was 39. Police responded to a 911 call shortly after 8 a.m. at a 51-story luxury apartment tower in Manhattan\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen neighborhood where officers found Trachtenberg \u201cunconscious and unresponsive,\u201d according to an NYPD statement.<\/p>\n

As per reports, she underwent a liver transplant last year, and her body may have rejected the organ. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. No foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death, police said.\u201cThe family requests privacy for their loss,\u201d Trachtenberg\u2019s representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement Wednesday. Trachtenberg was 8 when she began playing Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon\u2019s \u201cThe Adventures of Pete & Pete\u201d from 1994 to 1996 and then starred in the title role in the film adaptations of \u201cHarriet the Spy\u201d and \u201cInspector Gadget,\u201d opposite Matthew Broderick.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMichelle comes off as genuine because she really is a genuine kid. Everyone can identify with her,\u201d said Debby Beece, president of Nickelodeon Movies in 1996. In 2000 Trachtenberg joined the cast of \u201cBuffy,\u201d playing Dawn Summers, the younger sister of the title character played by Sarah Michelle Gellar between 2000 and 2003.Trachtenberg thanked Gellar for speaking out against Joss Whedon in 2021, following abuse allegations made against the \u201cBuffy\u201d showrunner. \u201cI am brave enough now as a 35-year-old woman to repost this,\u201d she wrote on social media, and alluded to \u201chis not appropriate behavior\u201d she experienced as a teenage actor.<\/p>\n

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In 2001, she received a Daytime Emmy nomination for hosting Discovery\u2019s \u201cTruth or Scare.\u201d Trachtenberg went on to recurring roles on \u201cSix Feet Under,\u201d \u201cWeeds\u201d and \u201cGossip Girl,\u201d where she played the gang\u2019s scheming nemesis, Georgina Sparks.For her fan-favorite role, she was nominated as a TV villain at the Teen Choice Award in 2012. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl,\u201d she told Seventeen in 2009. I love the reaction you get. I never understood why some actors don\u2019t want to play villains or evil characters.\u201dShe was one of the original series\u2019 stars to return for a pair of guest appearances in the 2021 \u201cGossip Girl\u201d revival.<\/p>\n

Blake Lively on Instagram on Tuesday honored her Gossip Girl co-star: \u201cThe world lost a deeply sensitive and good person in Michelle. May her work and her huge heart be remembered by those who were lucky enough to experience her fire.\u201dAs if to cement herself in millennial culture, Trachtenberg made a cameo in Fall Out Boy\u2019s music video for the \u201cThis Ain\u2019t a Scene, It\u2019s an Arms Race\u201d alongside Seth Green. Hollywood took to social media to mourn one of their own, one who had made the transition from kid star to teen queen to adult actor. \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d co-star David Boreanaz said on Instagram it was \u201cso very sad.. horrible news.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Melissa Gilbert, who starred with Trachtenberg in the 1996 film \u201cA Holiday for Love,\u201d wrote on Instagram: \u201cMy heart aches for your family and all those who loved you so.\u201dRosie O\u2019Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in her \u201cHarriet the Spy\u201d debut, said her death was \u201cheartbreaking:\u201d \u201cI loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.\u201d Glee star Chris Colfer remembered her this way: \u201cMichelle was the absolute sweetest and one of the most supportive people I knew,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Trachtenberg\u2019s later credits included \u201cIce Princess\u201d in 2005, playing a math prodigy and aspiring figure skater. The AP said it had \u201ca good, though feeble, heart and the best of intentions\u201d and said Trachtenberg was \u201cmining the same nervous twitter from her kid-sister days on \u2018Buffy the Vampire Slayer.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201dThe New York City-born Trachtenberg also appeared in the 2004 teen sex comedy \u201cEuroTrip,\u201d she co-starred with Zac Efron and Leslie Mann in 2009\u2019s \u201c17 Again\u201d and played a murderous stalker and abductor on an episode of \u201cCriminal Minds.\u201dFor \u201cKilling Kennedy,\u201d the 2013 film in which she played the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, around 80% of Trachtenberg\u2019s dialogue was in Russian.<\/p>\n

She had learned the language from her mother growing up. Other credits included supporting roles in the films \u201cMysterious Skin\u201d in 2004 and \u201cBlack Christmas<\/a>\u201d in 2006. She also starred on the NBC medical series \u201cMercy\u201d (2009\u20132010) opposite Taylor Schilling. More recently, she hosted the true-crime docuseries \u201cMeet, Marry, Murder\u201d on Tubi. ___Associated Press Writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n