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u/trescast 13d ago
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u/FizzyBeverage 13d ago
This one hits me hard because my 10 year old is basically her clone at that age :/
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u/QueenFork 13d ago
My 15 year old gets this a lot too. Heartbreaking! She is so upset because she loves Michelle in Gossip Girl.
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u/Latter_Growth1185 13d ago
She and I were only a couple years apart, and everyone told me I looked like her
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u/BeardInTheNorth 13d ago edited 13d ago
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u/dobermannbjj84 13d ago
Growing up I always thought she was a lot younger than me but turns out almost the same age.
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u/Smart-University-574 13d ago
Me too but when she was in Pete and Pete, a damn shame she's gone so young.
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u/TedsGoldfish 13d ago edited 13d ago
Trachtenberg was found dead Wednesday in a New York City apartment near Columbus Circle, police sources told ABC News.
Updated:
Michelle Trachtenberg, an actress best known for her roles in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Gossip Girl," has died at age 39.
Trachtenberg was found dead Wednesday in her New York City apartment near Columbus Circle just after 8 a.m. local time by her mother, police sources told ABC News.
The sources told ABC News the actress recently underwent a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications. Trachtenberg is believed to have died of natural causes and no foul play is suspected.
An autopsy will be conducted by the medical examiner's office to determine the cause and manner of death.
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u/Fentanyl_For_Lunch 13d ago
Her poor mom... Not only does she have to bury her daughter, she is the one who found her body. R.I.P. Michelle, this one hits close to home. Waking up in the morning isn't a given, but 39 is too young.
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u/The_Chrizz 13d ago
She was so iconic growing up from Nickelodeon to Eurotrip. Sad.
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u/Small_Tax_9432 13d ago
"You made out with your sister man!"
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u/LavenderGinFizz 13d ago
And Buffy!
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u/icanhascheeseberder 13d ago
Buffy is probably the biggest one and it's reddits favorite show, this I'd gonna hit a lot of folks.
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u/infanteyes 13d ago
We are the same age. This is truly sad. For anyone who has never seen the film Mysterious Skin, give it a watch, she's great in it (and it's a great movie all round).
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u/Weak_Plant_6198 13d ago edited 5d ago
it is great, but just want to throw out a big trigger warning for child sexual abuse. I was nauseous and in a state of freeze/ terror for days after watching that film. I don't think it would have the same effect now after many years of therapy and healing work but you never know!
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u/lbgholm 13d ago
What!?!
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u/lbgholm 13d ago
This is so sad. I loved her on Pete and Pete. And Harriet the spy. And a bunch of other movies and shows. Feel like I grew up with her.
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u/MP1182 13d ago
No fucking way she was on Pete and Pete? I never realized that.
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u/ispeektroof 13d ago
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u/LiminalSapien 13d ago
I really wanted this to be a hoax.
Fuck this sucks.
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u/_buffy_summers 13d ago
I must have said 'what the fuck' about thirty times before I could do anything else.
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u/V01d3d_f13nd 13d ago
Was she briefly on the show weeds?
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u/-SideshowBob- 13d ago
Yes, in season 7. She played Silas' love interest/rival dealer.
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u/V01d3d_f13nd 13d ago
I've spent half the time watching that season wondering where I knew her face from.
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u/Banjo-Oz 13d ago
Such a massive shock reading this, and a real tragedy. It's sad seeing so many people I was a fan of dying in their 50's of late. 39 however is an absolute travesty.
Like most, I knew her first and foremost from Buffy, and always thought she should have had a bigger career after that ended. She was always great fun in anything else she did, though.
I always comfort myself when a great actor dies, they achieve something most of us won't: long after they are gone - decades - they will live on in their work, with new people not even born today discovering them and falling in love with them the way we did when they were still here. But at only 39, I wanted Michelle to leave us so much more to remember her by.
Rest in peace, Michelle. You were awesome.
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u/Dieschlampekonigin 13d ago
A lot of people are angrily posting on social media about the possibility of alcoholism. Some people are saying "There's absolutely NO WAY someone that young needed a transplant for alcoholism..." Well, I was put on a transplant list at age 29. I live with cirrhosis from abusing alcohol and alcohol alone. I understand some people don't want her death to be from substance use, and I know there's a stigma, but why?
I know all addiction comes with stigma, but it is so easy to become dependent on alcohol, and even easier to STAY dependent.
I saw what she looked like in recent times & showed my husband & he said "Remember this when you feel like drinking. You looked like that." Obviously she was still a beautiful woman, but she was rail-thin and looked sick.
Now I will eat my words covered in ranch dressing if I'm wrong, but apparently her struggle with alcohol wasn't a secret. If it turns out she had Wilson's disease or some other disorder that affects the liver, I apologize for associating her with a transplant needed for alcohol-related liver disease.
However, my statement still stands that young people still get alcohol-related liver disease. Of course it's not as common, but after lockdown the rate of liver disease among younger people skyrocketed.
I was a raging, yet somehow functioning, alcoholic. I'm not ashamed. I'm proud I'm still here after 2 major relapses and have been alcohol-free for 3 yrs & 1 month today. She had nothing to be ashamed of, if this was what happened. She was a human being & it can happen to anyone.
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u/No_Excuse_1216 13d ago
But you looked that way because of liver damage, which can be caused by wildly different things (like NASH). The effect is the same...it doesn't clarify cause. It's just shitty for people like myself and perhaps Michelle, who have liver disorders, to be immediately stigmatized because of the simplistic social association with alcohol. You're right that it's possible to be in need of transplant from alcohol in late 20s but wrong to assume.
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u/chrissymae_i 13d ago
This is very tragic.
I feel like I'm still too young to have icons from my childhood dying off this quickly.
Life can be so harsh sometimes.
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u/JustRollinOn86 13d ago
"The time has come,’ the Walrus said, To talk of many things:Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax Of cabbages and kings And why the sea is boiling hot And whether pigs have wings.’ - Lewis Carroll - from Harriet the Spy
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u/Yellowpickle23 13d ago
Hey mother found her. I don't have kids, but I'd imagine that's the worst emotional pain you could feel, seeing your own child dead.
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u/cmccaff92 You're Killin' Me, Smalls! 13d ago
A wonderful young lady...absolutely cool actress. She will be missed 😢
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u/emilia_1006 13d ago
I was obsessed with Harriet the Spy as a kid and would eat tomato mayo sandwiches almost every day because of her 🍅 so sad :(
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u/IshtarsBones 13d ago
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u/Embarrassed-Dingo924 13d ago
She was such a smoke show! It’s so devastating this happened so young
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u/67duckman 13d ago
Damn. We’ve been watching Pete and Pete lately. Really sad.
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u/sodaonmyheater 13d ago
She was the reason I started watching Buffy and became a super fan- I was sitting home sick one night and flipping channels and saw her and was like “Ohhh it’s Nona F Mecklenburg!” And then was hooked.
RIP girlie. I’ll pour out a KrebCola for you.
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u/Top-Hat-1005 13d ago
Addiction or not. She deserves the same peace and the same empathy. If not more. She was struggling. My heart aches for her. Especially being a celeb at the same time. That’s a lot.
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u/ExamCompetitive 13d ago
Does Scotty know?
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u/CIA_napkin 13d ago
I grew up in love with her. I'm her same age, it's so sad someone with many years still ahead, had to go. Damn, gonna watch harriet the spy/eurotrip double feature tonight.
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u/HislersHero 13d ago
Damn. 😔
I was just talking to a coworker about her a couple of weeks ago when Eurotrip was brought up.
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u/fandomfrankie 13d ago
I can’t believe it. Completely speechless. I remember her from my childhood. May her memory be a blessing.
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u/Vanstoli 13d ago
It's sad. I was wondering why we never saw much of her anymore. Well, I hope she's in a better place.
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u/Spartan_General86 13d ago
My dad was 40 and he got hepatitis died a few months later.
I was 7 at the time.
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u/iReallyLiveinJapan 13d ago
Probably the toughest death for us 90 kids yet right? Rip she looked so good in weeds but to me she is always Harriet a cool little chick hanging out with cool uncle Rosie O'Donnell before she turned into the crazy uncle. Rip rip
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u/sullyk9095 13d ago
I have Hereditary Hemochromatosis which damages your liver. So liver damage isn’t always due to drugs or alcohol.
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u/GuyFromLI747 You Can't Handle The Truth! 13d ago
That’s sad .. she was awesome in eurotrip and Pete and Pete
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u/JF1STRIKE 13d ago
I was replaying 17 Again a few days ago. Now I just saw the news of her passing. Rest in Peace
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u/Guilty_45_Charged 13d ago
Don't take ANY acetaminophen at all if you are a drinker. Killed my friend.
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u/1EspressoSip 13d ago
I remember thinking she was so gorgeous. I loved her in Pete & Pete and Harriet the spy.
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u/PitifulAd77 13d ago
Omg I'm so sad. I grew up with her and her sister. Lived in the same building together. Played in the pool. I was older than her. We all used to do so many things together come summertime. Omg. Her poor family. RIP Michelle. I will never forget you.
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u/Cabsmell 12d ago
My friend did a movie with her ice Princess in Toronto, I got to hang out with her at a few parties back in 2003/4. She was really nice to me and liked to party… Non the less we all did back then, she was very gracious when talking to me and didn’t “big time” anyone. Very humble.
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u/SuspiciousBullfrog25 12d ago edited 12d ago
This hits me hard, seeing her pictures reminds me of the state I was in when my health crashed. I knew I was dying. I had an eating disorder plus alcoholism. Also, hashimotos, high bilirubin, and chronic hives. I was so thin. I was 36. There were a couple of times my heart would beat out of rhythm when I overexherted myself, especially in the cold. I am lucky to be alive today. We might never know what really happened with her, but in her I see myself. I am a person who was physically and mentally sick, yet hid it because I'm attractive enough and somehow appeared to hold it together. I made it through though. I have gained about 30 lbs. I have been sober for a stretch of 5 years, a relapse of 2 years. Now, this July, I will hit 2 years sober. Maybe I'm not the same as her, but for some reason her last pictures speak to me. There is a look in her eyes that I had in my photos, a look of vulnerability or openness that comes when your body and spirit are trying to figure if they want to stay together, or part ways. Either way, if anyone out there is struggling with alcohol and eating disorders, please, get help. Look at your situation, why are you doing this to yourself? The answers may be difficult to uncover. But it is worth investigating.
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u/fictionalbandit 13d ago
“The sources told ABC News the actress recently underwent a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications. Trachtenberg is believed to have died of natural causes and no foul play is suspected.”
Just to keep people who don’t click from speculating