Shannen Doherty Dead At 53, Starred On '90210' And 'Charmed'

LOS ANGELES — Actress Shannen Doherty is dead at 53 after a long fight with cancer.

Her publicist, Leslie Sloane, confirmed in a statement to People and several other publications that the "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Charmed" star died Saturday.

"The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie," the statement said. "The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace."

Her illness was publicly revealed in a lawsuit filed in 2015 against her former business managers, in which she alleged they mismanaged her money and allowed her health insurance to lapse. She later shared intimate details of her treatment following a single mastectomy. In December 2016, she posted a photo of her first day of radiation, calling the treatment "frightening" for her.

In February 2020, Doherty revealed that the cancer had returned and she was at stage four. She said she came forward because her health conditions could come out in court. The actor had sued insurance giant State Farm after her California home was damaged in a fire in 2018.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty moved to Los Angeles with her family at age 7 and, within a few years, became an actor.

“It was completely my decision,” she told The Associated Press in a 1994 interview. “My parents never pushed me into anything. They support me. It really wouldn’t matter if I was a professional soccer player — they’d still be as supportive and loving.”

As a child star, she worked steadily in such TV series as “Little House on the Prairie,” in which she played Jenny Wilder. She detoured as a teenager to the big screen in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1985) and “Heathers.”

In 1990, the doe-eyed, dark-haired actor won her breakout role as Brenda Walsh in producer Aaron Spelling’s hit teenage melodrama set in posh Beverly Hills. She and Jason Priestley’s Brandon, Brenda’s twin brother, were fish-out-of-water Midwesterners.

But Doherty’s fame came with media scrutiny and accounts of outbursts, drinking and impulsiveness — the latter most notably after a very brief marriage to George Hamilton’s son.

People reported in 1993 that Doherty was served with a restraining order for domestic violence after her boyfriend accused her of using a gun to threaten him, according to The New York Times.

She left “90210” at the end of its fourth season in 1994 (the show aired until 2000), reportedly removed by Spelling because of conflicts with her co-stars and chronic lateness.

But in her 1994 AP interview, Doherty described her life as peaceful.

“It must be, if you pick up the Enquirer and find the only thing they can write about me is that I installed a pay phone next to my house and was seen at Stroud’s (a discount bed-and-bath chain) buying $1,400 worth of bed linens and wouldn’t go to an expensive store,” she said. “It must be calm if they’re pulling that stuff out of their heads.”

Doherty went on to play Prue Halliwell in "Charmed" from 1998 to 2001, but left the show after three seasons, reportedly due to drama with costar Alyssa Milano, according to Vanity Fair.

Doherty continued to work up until her death, mainly in television movies and series, according to IMDb.

In addition to Ashley Hamilton, she had marriages to poker player Rick Salomon, which ended in divorce, and photographer Kurt Iswarienko, whom she filed for divorce from in May 2023, the Times reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.