The recent announcement that Buffy the Vampire Slayer may soon be making a comeback with Sarah Michelle Gellar has excited fans of the supernatural series—but now there's some very sad news to accompany the show's return to the pop-culture spotlight. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy's younger sister Dawn starting in season five, has passed away. She was 39 years old.
News of Trachtenberg's death was widely reported, first in the New York Post, which noted no cause other than to point to police sources who said it was not suspicious. The paper also wrote that the actor had recently undergone a liver transplant, and had caused worry among her many social-media followers in recent months with photos that seemed to indicate health struggles, though “last January, Trachtenberg responded to fan concerns saying she was ‘happy and healthy.'”
Trachtenberg was born in 1985 and got her show-biz start as a child actor, appearing on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete and ABC soap opera All My Children as a pre-teen. She then starred as the title character in Harriet the Spy, released in 1996, and went on to have a film career that included teen comedies EuroTrip and 17 Again, and slasher remake Black Christmas, as well as edgier fare like Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin.
Her biggest impact, however, was probably in her TV work, which in addition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer included medical drama Mercy and teen drama Gossip Girl, as well as memorable guest roles on Six Feet Under, Weeds, and more. Dawn also enjoyed more adventures in the Buffy comics that continued on for years after the series ended in 2003.
Trachtenberg brought a memorable spark in all of her projects, and she will be very missed.
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