Shannen Doherty, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star has passed away at 53. Doherty died Saturday, according to a statement from her publicist, Leslie Sloane. She had had breast cancer for years.
“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” Sloane said in a statement.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty moved to Los Angeles with her family at age 7 and, within a few years, became an actor.
As a child star, she worked steadily in such TV series as Little House on the Prairie, in which she played Jenny Wilder. She detoured as a teenager to the big screen in Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) and Heathers.
In 1990, the actor won her breakout role 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, were fish-out-of-water Midwesterners.
She left Beverly Hills, 90210 at the end of its fourth season in 1994 (the show aired until 2000), reportedly removed by Spelling because of conflicts with her co-stars and chronic lateness. Doherty reunited with Spelling when he cast her in 1998 as Prue Halliwell in Charmed.
Her illness was publicly revealed in a lawsuit filed in 2015 against her former business managers, in which she alleged they mismanaged her money and allowed her health insurance to lapse. She later shared intimate details of her treatment following a single mastectomy. In December 2016, she posted a photo of her first day of radiation, calling the treatment "frightening" for her.
In February 2020, Doherty revealed that the cancer had returned and she was at stage four. She said she came forward because her health conditions could come out in court. The actor had sued insurance giant State Farm after her California home was damaged in a fire in 2018.