“9-1-1: Nashville” star Isabelle Tate died over the weekend at the age of 23.
“We are deeply saddened and completely heartbroken to share that Isabelle Tate passed away on October 19th,” McCray Agency, a Nashville-based talent agency that represented her, wrote in an Instagram post.
The agency said in a statement that she had a rare form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The statement said her death was “sudden and shocking.”
The disease affects how a person’s peripheral nerves work and “usually affects muscle control and how you feel your feet and hands,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. It gets progressively worse over time.
Common treatments include special footwear, physical therapy, medications, surgery, and leg braces or wheelchairs for mobility support.
The Cleveland Clinic said the condition is usually not dangerous, but severe forms can cause weakness in the muscles that control breathing and swallowing, which can lead to respiratory failure and other deadly issues.
Tate, who was born in Nashville, wrote in a 2022 Instagram post that she was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 13.
“When I was first diagnosed, I couldn’t fully understand what it was or grasp what it could be,” she wrote in the post. “Over the year, I was going on with my life and would notice little things get more difficult for me, but not so much where it stood out to me significantly. Recently, it’s really progressed and I’ve come to terms that if I want to live my life to the fullest I need to use a wheelchair at times.”
Tate said that although she struggled to accept the disease, she was “choosing to embrace it and not let it define me.”
The McCray Agency said that Tate had recently returned to acting and booked a role on the pilot episode of the ABC television show “9-1-1: Nashville.” The episode aired earlier this month.
