Shannen Doherty, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ star, dies at 53

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shannen Doherty, the “Beverly Hills, 90210” star whose life and profession had been roiled by sickness and tabloid tales, has died at 53.

After years with breast most cancers, Doherty died Saturday, in keeping with an announcement from her publicist, Leslie Sloane.

“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and good friend was surrounded by her family members in addition to her canine, Bowie. The household asks for his or her privateness presently to allow them to grieve in peace,” Sloane mentioned in an announcement. The information was first reported by Individuals journal.

Her sickness was publicly revealed in a lawsuit filed in 2015 towards her former enterprise managers, by which she alleged they mismanaged her cash and allowed her medical health insurance to lapse. She later shared intimate particulars of her remedy following a single mastectomy. In December 2016, she posted a photograph of her first day of radiation, calling the remedy “scary” for her.

In February 2020, Doherty revealed that the most cancers had returned and she was at stage 4. She mentioned she got here ahead as a result of her well being situations might come out in courtroom. The actor had sued insurance coverage large State Farm after her California dwelling was broken in a fireplace in 2018.

“I don’t know how lengthy I’m going to be on the chemo for. … That’s not one thing that I can predict, it’s not one thing my medical doctors can predict. And it’s scary, it’s like an enormous wake-up name,” Doherty mentioned on a late June episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Clear,” including {that a} current change within the form of her most cancers cells meant there have been new remedy protocols for her to strive. “For the primary time in a pair months most likely, I really feel hopeful as a result of there are such a lot of extra protocols now, whereas earlier than I used to be hopeful — however I used to be nonetheless getting ready.”

A local of Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty moved to Los Angeles along with her household at age 7 and, inside a number of years, grew to become an actor.

“It was fully my choice,” she advised The Related Press in a 1994 interview. “My mother and father by no means pushed me into something. They assist me. It actually wouldn’t matter if I used to be an expert soccer participant — they’d nonetheless be as supportive and loving.”

As a baby star, she labored steadily in such TV collection as “Little Home on the Prairie,” by which she performed Jenny Wilder. She detoured as a teen to the large display screen in “Ladies Simply Wish to Have Enjoyable” (1985) and “Heathers.”

In 1990, the doe-eyed, dark-haired actor received her breakout position 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, had been fish-out-of-water Midwesterners.

However Doherty’s fame got here with media scrutiny and accounts of outbursts, ingesting and impulsiveness — the latter most notably after a really transient marriage to actor George Hamilton’s son, Ashley. Doherty’s second marriage, in 2002, was to Rick Salomon and was annulled inside a 12 months. In 2011, Doherty married photographer Kurt Iswarienko. She filed for divorce in April 2023.

She left “Beverly Hills, 90210” on the finish of its fourth season in 1994 (the present aired till 2000), reportedly eliminated by Spelling due to conflicts along with her co-stars and power lateness.

However in her 1994 AP interview, Doherty described her life as peaceable.

“It have to be, for those who choose up the Enquirer and discover the one factor they will write about me is that I put in a pay telephone subsequent to my home and was seen at Stroud’s (a reduction bed-and-bath chain) shopping for $1,400 value of mattress linens and wouldn’t go to an costly retailer,” she mentioned. “It have to be calm in the event that they’re pulling that stuff out of their heads.”

Three years later, in 1997, Doherty was sentenced to anger-management counseling by a Beverly Hills Municipal Courtroom choose after she allegedly smashed a beer bottle onto a person’s windshield throughout a quarrel. After a 2001 drunken driving arrest, she pleaded no contest and was ordered to serve 5 days in a work-release program.

Doherty reunited with Spelling when he solid her in 1998 as Prue Halliwell in “Charmed.” In an AP interview that 12 months, the actor expressed regrets about her previous.

“I did convey numerous it on myself,” Doherty mentioned. “I don’t suppose I can level fingers and say, ‘Oh, YOU’RE guilty.’ And I don’t do this with myself, both. As a result of I used to be simply rising up.”

Her persona was “grotesquely misconstrued” by the media, Doherty added.

Spelling mentioned on the time that their relationship was by no means as unhealthy as some made it appear.

“We had a number of bumps alongside the highway, however golly, who doesn’t?” mentioned Spelling, who died in 2006. “The whole lot Shannen did was blown out of proportion by the rag sheets.”

Doherty starred with Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano in “Charmed” from 1998-2001, at which level her character was changed by one performed by Rose McGowan. Doherty appeared within the “90210” sequel collection seven years later and competed on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She additionally labored on the third “Beverly Hills, 90210” reboot, “BH90210,” a meta send-up that reunited a lot of the authentic solid and aired for one season in 2019.

She additionally appeared in a tribute episode of “Riverdale” devoted to that present’s star — and her late “Beverly Hills, 90210” on-screen love curiosity — Luke Perry.

Doherty struggled to recapture her “Beverly Hills, 90210” star standing, however labored in big-screen movies together with “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Again” and in such TV films as “A Burning Ardour: The Margaret Mitchell Story,” by which she performed the “Gone with the Wind” creator. A nadir was “Blindfold: Acts of Obsession,” an erotic thriller reverse Judd Nelson.

Doherty’s lawsuit towards her ex-business managers was settled in 2016. She was open concerning the toll that most cancers was taking. She posted pictures that confirmed the baldness that adopted remedy and, in an August 2016 interview with “Leisure Tonight,” shared her fears.

“The unknown is all the time the scariest half,” she mentioned. “Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work?” she mentioned. “Ache is manageable, you realize residing and not using a breast is manageable, it’s the concern of your future and the way your future goes to have an effect on the individuals that you just love.”

Doherty advocated for most cancers consciousness and care, and spoke to the AP in 2021 about how spending years with the illness affected her life and sense of optimism.

“Whenever you get one thing like most cancers, your tolerance for drama is zero. I don’t like individuals losing my time. I don’t like negativity,” she mentioned. “It’s odd as a result of I believe for those who look again, you’re like, ‘Oh, gosh, it’s a lot drama round her,’ however I don’t suppose I used to be essentially into the drama. I simply suppose if we took younger 18-year-old Shannon, 19-year-old Shannon, and we took her and planted her like proper now, I might be a nerd and no person could be writing about me.”

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Lynn Elber, a longtime tv author, retired from The Related Press in 2022. AP journalists Alicia Rancilio and Mallika Sen contributed reporting.