(April 12, 1971 – July 13, 2024)
Shannen Doherty has died after years of living with cancer. She was 53.
She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved to southern California at the age of six. As a child, she convinced her parents to take her to acting auditions, and got her first television role in 1981, at the age of 10, on the drama Father Murphy.
The following year, she was a regular on the ninth and final season of the popular Little House on the Prairie and in three of that show’s subsequent TV specials. She had a recurring role on the drama Our House (1986-88) and appeared in films including the black comedy Heathers (1989).
The slick television series Beverly Hills 90210, which focused on the lives and loves of young, privileged Los Angelenos, was first aired in 1990. Doherty played the wholesome Brenda Walsh, whose family, including her twin brother Brandon (Priestley), arrives in California from Minnesota in the first episode.
After leaving the show, she played the lead in Kevin Smith’s ramshackle comedy Mallrats (1995). Savaged by critics, the film flopped but later found an enthusiastic following on video and DVD. She had more success on the long-running series Charmed, which began in 1998, and in which she played one of three sisters who fight evil using witchcraft; she also directed several episodes.
