Photo: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
Shannen Doherty, who died at the age of 53, at an event in the United States in February of this year
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Shannen Dohertychild actor who became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s as a student on the teen drama “Raised by the Dance” (“Beverly Hills, 90210”), he died on Saturday (13) aged 53 after fighting for several years against a breast cancer. “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the death of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease,” said Leslie Sloane, Doherty’s publicist.
Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 but went into remission two years later. This truce would not last. In February 2020, documents from a lawsuit she filed against an insurance company over damage to her home reported that the actress was “dying” from stage 4 breast cancer, which had metastasized.
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“It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways,” Doherty told “Good Morning America” at the time. “There are definitely days when I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I think, ‘Well, why not me? Who else deserves it?’ None of us deserve it.”
In June 2023, she published an Instagram post revealing that her cancer had spread to her brain earlier in the year. “On January 5th my CT scan showed metastases in my brain,” Doherty captioned a video of her receiving radiation. “My fear is obvious. This fear… The turmoil… all the time… This is what cancer feels like.”
She is the second major cast member of “Barred at the Ball” to die young: Luke Perry, who performed with Dylan McKay, died in March 2019 of complications from a stroke.
Born on April 12, 1971, in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of a bank clerk and salon owner, Doherty went to Hollywood early. He started at age 10 on the short-lived series “Father Murphy,” just three years after his family moved to Los Angeles.
Series producer Michael Landon noticed the young actress and cast her in Little House on the Prairie the following year as the adopted daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder for an 18-episode series.
This exposure led to a succession of roles, including a three-year run (1986-88) in Wilford Brimley’s family drama “Our House” as one of the leads and an appearance in the 1989 comedy “Heathers.”
Ban the dance
His biggest highlight, however, would be the following year when “Barados no Baile” arrived. When she was 19, she was cast to play Brenda Walsh, the straight-laced teenager with a strong mind. Doherty would be tied to the role for the rest of her life as the series became a huge success and would become one of the best performances of the 1990s. Most of the show’s other main characters, including Garth, lasted another six seasons.
There would be a few more film roles in the 1990s, including the comedy “Mallrats” from director Kevin Smith, but his career stalled. That changed when she met and reunited with “Barred” producer Aaron Spelling to land a role on the supernatural soap opera “Charmed,” alongside Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs.
It seemed like the magic she enjoyed before was playing witch again – at least in the three seasons she stayed on before she left again before the series ended. She directed three of the final episodes in which she appeared.
She would reprise her iconic role as Brenda Walsh twice: in an extended cameo in the 2008 reboot, “90210,” and in the 2019 comedy-drama, “BH90210,” in which the original cast returned to play fictional versions of themselves as they attempted to visit his hit show again. “It wasn’t that she couldn’t escape that role; she kept coming back to him of her own accord,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
Difficult mood
Things didn’t always go according to Doherty’s script. The actress developed a reputation for being difficult to work with on set, fighting with cast and crew members, especially her “Breakfast” co-star Jennie Garth. Headlines in celebrity magazines and reports on hot shows didn’t help, showing Doherty going in and out of parties, facing financial problems and relationship difficulties.
“She was a reality TV star before there were reality TV stars,” Thompson said. “It was like Shannen Doherty had two shows, and you could put six sets of quotation marks around the word ‘real,’ at the same time.”
“Leaving ‘Barred’ when I did was the best thing that could have happened to me,” Doherty told Entertainment Weekly in 2008. “It gave me a chance to find peace and find out who I am.” as a person,” she said. “I’m not the one who put the press out because I was because I had some bad experiences and I was dealing with a bad husband or a boyfriend who was on the spot. I was not responding well to any of this. And I know it.” According to accounts from friends, however, Doherty became more troubled in middle age.
Doherty’s “Charmed” co-star, Milano, released a statement following the news of his death. “It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but deep down we were someone I admired and respected,” Milano said. “She was a talented actress who was loved by many and the world is smaller without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”
In the early 21st century, she bounced from one short-lived television series to another, and in 2006, she began hosting the series “Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty,” in which she helped contestants end their toxic relationships.
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She knew the subject well. Doherty has been divorced twice. His marriage to Ashley Hamilton, son of actor George Hamilton, in 1993 ended in divorce in 1994. His union with Rick Salomon ended in annulment in 2002, nine months after the wedding. In April 2023, Doherty filed for divorce from her third husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, whom she married in 2011.