Shannen Doherty, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ Star, Dies at 53

Shannen Doherty, the raven-haired actress known for playing headstrong characters in the 1990s television dramas “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed,” and who had tried in recent years to shed her rebellious reputation, died on Saturday. She was 53.

The cause was cancer, her publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in an emailed statement.

Ms. Doherty learned she had breast cancer in February 2015 and had been open about her struggle with it in the years since. In the summer of 2016, she shaved her head as a group of friends stood by, and in 2017, she announced that the cancer was in remission. It returned in 2020, and in June 2023, Ms. Doherty announced that the cancer had spread to her brain. In November, she said it had spread to her bones.

But she continued to work, and started a podcast that month.

“I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better,” she told People magazine. “I’m not done.”

Ms. Doherty in 1996. “I have felt misunderstood my whole life,” she told People in 2019.Credit…Gary Null/NBC

Shannen Maria Doherty was born on April 12, 1971, in Memphis to John Doherty Jr., a mortgage consultant, and Rosa (Wright) Doherty, a beautician. By age 10, Shannen had established herself as a child actress, appearing as Jenny Wilder in 18 episodes of “Little House on the Prairie” and acting alongside Wilford Brimley and Deidre Hall in the NBC drama “Our House.”

Those were quickly overshadowed by her performance as the acid-tongued, red-scrunchy-wearing Heather Duke in the 1988 movie “Heathers,” a campy comedy-thriller that starred Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Ms. Doherty as students who fight for lunchroom domination as the body count begins to rise.