LOS ANGELES – LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shannen Doherty, The star of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” whose life and career were troubled by illness and tabloid stories, has died at age 53.
After years of breast cancer, Doherty died on Saturday, according to a statement from her publicist, Leslie Sloane.
“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family requests privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” Sloane said Sunday. The news was first reported by People Magazine.
His illness was publicly revealed in a lawsuit filed in 2015 against his 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 “scary” for her.
In February 2020, Doherty revealed that the cancer had returned and she was in stage four. She said she came forward because her health conditions could be revealed in court. The actor sued insurance giant State Farm after her California home was damaged in a fire in 2018.
“I have no idea how long I will be on chemotherapy. … This is not something I can predict, it’s not something my doctors can predict. And it’s scary, it’s like a huge wake-up call,” Doherty said in a late June episode of her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast, adding that a recent change in the shape of her cancer cells meant there were new treatment protocols for her. to try. “For probably the first time in a few months, I feel hopeful because there are a lot more protocols now, whereas before I was hopeful — but I was still preparing.”
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty moved to Los Angeles with her family at age 7 and, within a few years, became an actress.
“It was completely my decision,” she told the Associated Press in a 1994 interview. “My parents never forced me into anything. They support me. It wouldn’t really matter if I was a professional football player – they would still be so supportive and loving.”
As a child star, she worked steadily on TV series such as “Little House on the Prairie,” in which she played Jenny Wilder. She strayed as a teenager to the big screen in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1985) and “Heather”.
In 1990, the dark-eyed, dark-haired actress earned her breakout role as Brenda Walsh in producer Aaron Spelling’s hit teen melodrama, set in fashionable Beverly Hills. She and Jason Priestley’s Brandon, Brenda’s twin brother, were Midwestern fish out of water.
But Doherty’s fame came with media scrutiny and reports of outbursts, drinking and impulsiveness – the latter particularly after a brief marriage to Ashley, son of actor George Hamilton. Doherty’s second marriage, in 2002, was to Rick Salomon and was annulled within a year. In 2011, Doherty married photographer Kurt Iswarienko. She filed for divorce in April 2023.
She left “Beverly Hills, 90210” at the end of its fourth season in 1994 (the show aired until 2000), reportedly removed by Spelling because of conflicts with her castmates and chronic tardiness.
But in his 1994 AP interview, Doherty described his life as peaceful.
“It must be, if you pick up the Enquirer and find that the only thing they can write about me is that I installed a pay phone near my house and was seen at Stroud’s (a chain of discount inns) buying $1,400 worth of bedding and wouldn’t go to an expensive store,” she said. “It must be calm if they are putting these things out of their minds.”
Three years later, in 1997, Doherty was sentenced to anger management counseling by a Beverly Hills Municipal Court judge after she allegedly smashed a beer bottle on a man’s windshield during a fight. After being arrested for drunk driving in 2001, she pleaded no contest and was ordered to serve five days in a work release program.
Doherty reunited with Spelling when he cast her in 1998 as Prue Halliwell in “Charmed.” In an interview with AP that year, the actress expressed regret over her past.
“I brought a lot of that with me,” Doherty said. “I don’t think I can point the finger and say, ‘Oh, it’s YOU to blame.’ And I don’t do that to myself either. Because I was just growing up.”
His personality was “grotesquely misinterpreted” by the media, Doherty added.
Spelling said at the time that their relationship was never as bad as some made it out to be.
“We’ve had some bumps along the road, but damn, who hasn’t?” said Spelling, who died in 2006. “Everything Shannen did was exaggerated by the rag sheets.”
Doherty starred with Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano on “Charmed” from 1998-2001, At that point his character was replaced by one played by Rose McGowan. Doherty appeared in the “90210” sequel seven years later and competed on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She also worked on the third reboot of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “BH90210,” a meta submission what reunited most of the original cast and aired for one season in 2019.
She also appeared in a tribute episode to “Riverdale” dedicated to the star of that show — and her late on-screen love interest “Beverly Hills, 90210” -Lucas Perry.
Doherty struggled to regain her star status on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” but worked in big-screen films including “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and in TV movies such as “A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story,” in which she played the author of “Gone with the Wind.” The lowest point was “Blindfold: Acts of Obsession”, an erotic thriller starring Judd Nelson.
Doherty’s lawsuit against her former business managers was settled in 2016. She was open about the toll her cancer was taking. She posted photos that showed the baldness that followed the treatment, and in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight” in August 2016, she shared her fears.
“The unknown is always the scariest part,” she said. “Will chemotherapy work? Will the radiation work?” she said. “The pain is manageable, you know that living without a breast is manageable, it is the worry of your future and how your future will affect the people you love.”
Doherty has advocated for cancer awareness and care and spoke to the AP in 2021 about how spending years with the disease affected her life and sense of optimism.
“When you have something like cancer, your tolerance for drama is zero. I don’t like people wasting my time. I don’t like negativity,” she said. “It’s weird because I think if you look back, you think, ‘Oh, my God, there’s so much drama around her,’ but I don’t think I was necessarily interested in the drama. I just think if we took 18-year-old Shannon, 19-year-old Shannon, and took her and planted her like she is now, I would be a nerd and no one would write about me.”
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Longtime television writer Lynn Elber retired from the Associated Press in 2022. AP journalists Alicia Rancilio and Mallika Sen contributed reporting.
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