Shannen Doherty, the actor who helped pioneer the teen drama genre with her role as Brenda Walsh on Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210,” has died. She was 53.
Doherty died after a long battle with breast cancer, which returned in 2020 after she went into remission in 2017. She died on Saturday, July 13, according to a statement from her longtime publicist, Leslie Sloane.
She was surrounded by her loved ones and her dog, Bowie.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease,” Sloane said in the statement. “The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace.”
Doherty's “Charmed” co-star Alyssa Milano also reacted to the news of her passing, noting that she had deep respect for the actor.
“It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of," she said in a statement to TODAY.com. "She was a talented actress, beloved by many and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”
Born April 12, 1971, Doherty was a child actor who had racked up several credits on her résumé. She first appeared on the Merlin Olsen drama “Father Murphy” in 1981 before landing the role of Jenny Wilder on the final season of “Little House on the Prairie.”
After that series ended, Doherty made the rounds on the small screen, guest starring on shows such as “Airwolf,” Highway to Heaven,” “Life Goes On,” “The New Leave It to Beaver” and “21 Jump Street,” as well as nabbing a starring role on the short-lived drama “Our House” with Wilford Brimley.
Doherty also dabbled in film, appearing in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and the dark comedy “Heathers.”
As the decade turned, Doherty’s star would soar to new heights with “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Premiering Oct.4. 1990, the drama, created by Aaron Spelling, became one of the definitive shows of the ‘90s.
Doherty played Brenda, a teen who moved with her twin brother, Brandon (Jason Priestley), and their parents from Minneapolis to Beverly Hills. The show initially struggled to find its footing in the ratings before it caught on. Its success was propelled, in large part, by the romance between headstrong yet vulnerable Brenda and her brooding boyfriend, Dylan, played by the late Luke Perry.
“I think it was a very real relationship in a lot of ways,” she told People in 2020. “There was also, yes, a chemistry between myself and Luke. There was a playfulness, but a true sort of caring about one another and knowing that we were a part of a couple that was going to be very iconic. And even back then we felt a certain amount of responsibility for that.”
It was during “Beverly Hills, 90210” that Doherty developed a reputation as a so-called “bad girl,” with tabloids reporting on her alleged fights with her co-stars, most notably Jennie Garth, as well as a tendency not to arrive to the show’s set on time.
“I’m not saying I don’t have my moments of bitchiness because everybody has them,” Doherty told People in 1992.
“But it’s never for no reason,” she added. “I think that life is short, you should live it and be happy. I’ve always been a ballsy kid. I know it pisses some people off, but isn’t the end result much better?”
Doherty wound up leaving the show after the fourth season. The drama would run for another six seasons without her.
After exiting “Beverly Hills, 90210,” she appeared in several TV movies and the big screen comedy “Mallrats” in 1995, which was not a box office success.
Doherty reunited with Spelling in 1998 when he cast her as Prue on the series “Charmed,” about three sisters who are witches. Doherty’s alleged behavior on set once again became tabloid fodder and she left the show after the third season, amid talks of strife with co-star Alyssa Milano.
During a panel discussion in February 2024, Milano did not deny claims she helped get Doherty booted from the show, admitting she played a role in the trouble on set.
“I ... want to take accountability and apologize for whatever part I played in the situation,” she said.
Doherty had previously addressed her relationship with Milano on a December 2023 episode of her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty.
“I heard that she addressed it [the competitiveness] in her book,” Doherty had said, referring to Milano’s 2021 book “Sorry Not Sorry.” “Obviously, I’m never reading her book because it’s (called) ‘Sorry, Not Sorry.’ So right there it tells me you’re not freaking sorry.”
Doherty would later say her bad girl image was deserved, but she grew out of it.
“I have a rep. Did I earn it? Yeah, I did. But, after awhile you sort of try to shed that rep because you’re kind of a different person,” she told Parade in 2010. “You’ve evolved and all of the bad things you’ve done in your life have brought you to a much better place.”
Doherty would go on to appear in the short-lived Fox drama “North Shore” and hosted the first season of Sci Fi Channel’s hidden camera show “Scare Tactics.” She would also reprise the role of Brenda on the “Beverly Hills, 90210” reboot for The CW and play herself in 2019’s “BH90210,” in which several cast members returned to play fictionalized versions of themselves. That show ran for only six episodes.
Doherty appeared in a slew of reality shows, including the 10th season of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She and professional partner Mark Ballas were the first couple eliminated.
In October 1993, Doherty married Ashley Hamilton, the son of George Hamilton. They filed for divorced in April 1994. She married Rick Salomon in 2002, but that marriage would be annulled less than a year later. In 2011, she married Kurt Iswarienko, but later filed for divorce in 2023 after 11 years of marriage.
“Divorce is the last thing Shannen wanted. Unfortunately, she felt she was left with no other option,” Doherty’s rep, Leslie Sloane, told TODAY.com in a statement.
In recent years, Doherty made headlines for her health struggles.
In 2015, she announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and, in 2017, she revealed she was in remission. In 2020, a spokesman for the actor confirmed the cancer had come back, but now as stage 4.
Doherty later said the cancer had spread to her brain, noting during a January 2024 episode of her podcast that her doctor discovered it after she fell following a Christmas party.
Doherty was very open about her cancer battle and documented her experience, while also touching on the other aspects of her condition.
“Cancer has changed my life for the better,” she told the Press Association in 2016 when she accepted the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award.
“It’s made me a better human being. It stripped away all the walls and barriers. ... It exposes any lie in your life whatsoever. It exposes who’s not really truly there for you and who really is there for you. It’s this brilliant thing where you just look around and think, ‘Oh my God, this person is amazing. They’re showing up for me in a way I never expected.”
In October 2021, she posted photos to document what she was enduring, in the hopes of encouraging others to get mammograms. She also said cancer had simply become part of her identity.
“I feel like I have a responsibility in my more public life, which I separate from my acting life … to talk about cancer and perhaps educate people more and let people know that people with stage 4 are very much alive and very active,” she told People in September 2021.
