Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty dead at 53

By Rachel Looker, BBC News

Shannen Doherty, pictured in August 2019. Photo: AFP / MICHAEL TRAN

Actress Shannen Doherty, best known for roles in hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed, died on Saturday from cancer at 53.

"It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty," her publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in a statement.

"The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie."

Doherty spent over four decades as an actress. She is best known for playing Brenda Walsh on four seasons of 90210. The series followed a group of Beverly Hills teenagers as they faced relationship and family issues.

Doherty was nominated for several awards for her role on the show.

She later went on to play Brenda in a 2008 reboot of the series where her character grew up to become a theatre actress.

The cast of Beverly Hills 90210 in 1990, with Doherty second from right. Photo: Photo12 via AFP

The actor was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015 and underwent a mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. She announced she was in remission in 2017, but the cancer returned two years later.

She was open about her battle with cancer, documenting it on social media.

In a June 2023 Instagram video, she shared that the the cancer spread to her brain. She announced last fall that she is committed to battling the disease despite it spreading to her bones.

"I'm not done with living. I'm not done with loving. I'm not done with creating," she said to People magazine in November 2023.

Born in Memphis, Doherty started acting as a child. She appeared in TV series including Voyagers, Our House and Father Murphy before starring as Jenny Wilder at the age of 11 in Little House on the Prairie.

Three years later in 1985, she got her first major film role starring in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

In 1988, Doherty played Heather Duke in the iconic teen film Heathers alongside Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker.

The actress struggled at the time with being young and famous, earning a reputation as a troublemaker on the set of 90210.

"I was very confused back then about what I wanted for myself, and the attention was way too much," she said. "I didn't always handle it that well."

She later starred in Charmed, a show about three sisters who were witches.

Doherty also played roles in North Shore, set in a Hawaii hotel, and the offbeat film comedy Mallrats.

The actress was married twice before marrying her current husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, in 2011.

In the 2010s, she ventured into reality TV appearing on Dancing With The Stars and the US version of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

Doherty was a passionate animal rights activist. Her semi-autobiographical book Badass, released in 2010, encouraged young women to live life with attitude and confidence.

- BBC