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

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

After years with breast most cancers, Doherty died Saturday, according to a assertion from her publicist, Leslie Sloane.

“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and buddy used to be surrounded by her relatives as well to her dog, Bowie. The household asks for their privacy today so they are able to grieve in peace,” Sloane said Sunday. The details used to be first reported by Other folks magazine.

Her sickness used to be publicly revealed in a lawsuit filed in 2015 in opposition to her gentle alternate managers, whereby she alleged they mismanaged her money and allowed her effectively being insurance coverage to lapse. She later shared intimate details of her treatment following a single mastectomy. In December 2016, she posted a represent of her first day of radiation, calling the treatment “horrid” for her.

In February 2020, Doherty revealed that the most cancers had returned and used to be at Stage 4. She said she came ahead because her effectively being prerequisites might most seemingly most seemingly come out in court docket. The actor had sued insurance coverage huge Say Farm after her California home used to be broken in a fireplace in 2018.

“I don’t get any conception how prolonged I’m going to be on the chemo for. … That’s now no longer one thing that I can predict, it’s now no longer one thing my docs can predict. And it’s horrid, it’s love a gigantic serious warning name,” Doherty said on a unhurried June episode of her podcast “Let’s Be Certain,” adding that a most up-to-date switch within the form of her most cancers cells intended there had been original treatment protocols for her to test out. “For the first time in a pair months potentially, I feel hopeful because there are such a huge amount of extra protocols now, whereas earlier than I was hopeful — however I was easy getting intriguing.”

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty moved to Los Angeles with her household at age 7 and, within a pair of years, modified into an actor.

“It used to be fully my decision,” she told The Connected Press in a 1994 interview. “My fogeys by no procedure pushed me into one thing else. They pork up me. It basically wouldn’t matter if I was a professional soccer participant — they’d easy be as supportive and loving.”

As a child superstar, she labored gradually in such TV series as “Cramped Apartment on the Prairie,” whereby she played Jenny Wilder. She detoured as a teen to the large display in “Ladies Gorgeous Choose to Procure Fun” (1985) and “Heathers.”

In 1990, the doe-eyed, dusky-haired actor received her breakout role as Brenda Walsh in producer Aaron Spelling’s hit teenage melodrama assign in posh Beverly Hills. She and Jason Priestley’s Brandon, Brenda’s twin brother, had been fish-out-of-water Midwesterners.

But Doherty’s repute came with media scrutiny and accounts of outbursts, drinking and impulsiveness — the latter most particularly after a extraordinarily transient marriage to actor George Hamilton’s son, Ashley. Doherty’s second marriage, in 2002, used to be to Rick Salomon and used to be annulled within a Twelve months. In 2011, Doherty married photographer Kurt Iswarienko. She filed for divorce in April 2023.

She left “Beverly Hills, 90210” on the tip of its fourth season in 1994 (the uncover aired until 2000), reportedly removed by Spelling on narrative of conflicts with her co-stars and chronic lateness.

But in her 1994 AP interview, Doherty described her existence as serene.

“It wants to be, if you get the Enquirer and salvage the supreme component they are able to write about me is that I assign in a pay phone next to my home and used to be viewed at Stroud’s (a gash price mattress-and-bath chain) seeking to search out $1,400 price of mattress linens and wouldn’t amble to a luxurious store,” she said. “It wants to be aloof within the occasion that they’re pulling that stuff out of their heads.”

Three years later, in 1997, Doherty used to be sentenced to madden-management counseling by a Beverly Hills Municipal Court docket resolve after she allegedly smashed a beer bottle onto a man’s windshield all the procedure in which thru a quarrel. After a 2001 drunken driving arrest, she pleaded no contest and used to be ordered to back five days in a piece-release program.

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

“I did say a range of it on myself,” Doherty said. “I don’t mediate I can level fingers and declare, ‘Oh, YOU’RE accountable.’ And I don’t discover that with myself, either. Because I was stunning rising up.”

Her character used to be “grotesquely misconstrued” by the media, Doherty added.

Spelling said on the time that their relationship used to be by no procedure as spoiled as some made it seem.

“We had a pair of bumps along the aspect motorway, however golly, who doesn’t?” said Spelling, who died in 2006. “All the pieces Shannen did used to be blown out of percentage by the rag sheets.”

Doherty starred with Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano in “Charmed” from 1998-2001, at which level her character used to be modified by one played by Rose McGowan. Doherty appeared within the “90210” sequel series seven years later and competed on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She also labored on the third “Beverly Hills, 90210” reboot, “BH90210,” a meta ship-up that reunited loads of the accepted solid and aired for one season in 2019.

She also appeared in a tribute episode of “Riverdale” devoted to that uncover’s superstar — and her unhurried “Beverly Hills, 90210” on-display esteem ardour — Luke Perry.

Doherty struggled to recapture her “Beverly Hills, 90210” superstar location, however labored in gigantic-display movies at the side of “Mallrats” and “Jay and Quiet Bob Strike Relief” and in such TV movies as “A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Yarn,” whereby she played the “Long gone with the Wind” creator. A nadir used to be “Blindfold: Acts of Obsession,” an erotic thriller reverse Judd Nelson.

Doherty’s lawsuit in opposition to her ex-alternate managers used to be settled in 2016. She used to be open about the toll that most cancers used to be taking. She posted photos that confirmed the baldness that followed treatment and, in an August 2016 interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” shared her fears.

“The unknown is persistently the scariest segment,” she said. “Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work?” she said. “Effort is manageable, you understand dwelling with out a breast is manageable, it’s the concern of your future and how your future is going to impact the these that you just esteem.”

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

“Within the occasion you discover one thing love most cancers, your tolerance for drama is zero. I don’t love folks wasting my time. I don’t love negativity,” she said. “It’s unheard of because I mediate if you watch reduction, you’re love, ‘Oh, gosh, it’s so essential drama spherical her,’ however I don’t mediate I was basically into the drama. I stunning mediate if we took younger 18-Twelve months-historic Shannen, 19-Twelve months-historic Shannen, and we took her and planted her love just now, I’d be a nerd and nobody would be writing about me.”

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