Fans in New York City devastated by death of actress Michelle Trachtenberg
HELL'S KITCHEN, Manhattan (WABC) -- Actress Michelle Trachtenberg was found dead in her New York City apartment at the age of 39 on Wednesday morning.
Police responded to a 911 call shortly after 8 a.m. at a 51-story luxury apartment tower in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood where officers found Trachtenberg "unconscious and unresponsive," according to an NYPD statement.
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.
"The family requests privacy for their loss," Trachtenberg's representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement Wednesday.
News of her death is hitting hard, especially on the Upper West Side near the apartment building where police say the actress was found by her mother.
For a certain generation, Trachtenberg was a part of the zeitgeist, known for her performances in "Harriet the Spy," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and maybe most famously, "Gossip Girl," where she played scheming socialite Georgina Sparks.
Sources told ABC News that Trachtenberg recently underwent a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications.
An autopsy will determine her cause of death.
Fans are devastated.
"It's unfortunate when anyone that young dies and passes away, but especially when it's someone you grew up watching on the screen and being an influence as you're growing up, it's just it's very sad, it just makes you feel kind of like heartbroken," said Anne Mania.
Trachtenberg had been a successful actress for almost her entire life. She started her acting career at the age of three when she appeared in her first commercial.
She will be be deeply missed in the city where she was born and bred and which she immortalized in a career that has had global reach.
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