Summary
- Shannen Doherty, known for
Beverly Hills 90210
&
Charmed
, has passed away at age 53 after battling cancer. -
Charmed
, a popular TV series, follows the powerful Halliwell sisters as they fight evil beings with their magic. - Doherty’s publicist confirmed her passing due to cancer, leaving fans mourning her loss.
Shannen Doherty, best known for playing Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills 90210 and Prue Halliwell in Charmed, has passed away. Doherty, who had been battling stage 4 breast cancer, died at the age of 53.
“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,” Doherty’s publicist Leslie Sloane said in a statement to People.
Doherty’s battle with cancer became public in 2015 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After going into remission in 2017, Doherty revealed in 2020 that the cancer had returned. The following year, she announced that it had spread to her brain and the diagnosis was terminal. In January this year, Doherty said she was undergoing a new treatment that she revealed was “miraculously” having an effect on the cancer. The actress constantly shared her thoughts on the subject with a candid openness that was praised for inspiring others going through similar situations. Her determination to continue working despite her health became a hopeful beacon for those who could not perhaps see their predicament in the same way.
Shannen Doherty’s Biggest Hits
Doherty’s big break came in the role of Brenda Walsh in ‘90s hit Beverly Hills 90210. The teen drama became a jump point for the young actress, who developed a large fanbase and received critical acclaim throughout her four seasons on the series. After 111 episodes, Doherty departed the show under the cloud of rumors of a rift between her and several other cast members. However, her role in the series was so iconic that she was able to reprise the part of Brenda in both the 2008 and 2019 reboots of the series, the latter coming during her ongoing health problems.
Doherty’s equally remembered role came in the supernatural series Charmed, in which she starred as the eldest of three witchy sisters, with Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs playing her on-screen siblings. Despite the success of the series, and Doherty’s central role, she again left the show relatively early, with her character being killed off in the Season 3 episode “All Hell Breaks Loose” – an episode that Doherty also directed. Just like her departure from Beverly Hills 90210, Doherty’s exit from Charmed came with several rumors of problems between the actress and other stars of the show, including accusations that Milano had her fired.
Shannen Doherty Starred in Over 80 Productions
Doherty’s appearances on both the big and small screen were many, with her first roles coming as a child in the series Father Murphy, and as Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie. The 1980s also saw her lend her voice to the Don Bluth animated movie The Secret of NIMH, appear in TV shows such as Magnum P.I., and star in the movies Heathers and Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
In the ‘90s, Doherty made appearances in the Kevin Smith movies Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Last year, the actress revealed that she was expecting to reprise her Mallrats role in the new sequel being devised by Smith, but the movie is one of Smith’s projects that seemed to be stalled, meaning that Doherty’s return can now not happen.
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Mallrats bombed at the box office in 1995, and star Shannen Doherty believes it greatly hindered her potential movie career.
In the last decade, Doherty continued to make regular appearances in several TV and movie projects. She appeared on Dancing with the Stars in its 10th season, returned to Heathers for Paramount’s TV adaptation of the movie, and also made appearances in the movies, Fortress with Bruce Willis, Undatable John with Tom Hanks, and Hot Seat with Mel Gibson. She currently has two movie projects that were completed before her death, How to Make a Deal with the Devil, in which she played the titular character, and Bukowski.