Shannen Doherty, star of “90210” and “Charmed,” dies at 53

Ms. Doherty announced in 2015 that she was being treated for breast cancer, which went into remission before recurring around 2019, when she began work on a six-part “90210” reunion. In June 2023, she said the cancer had spread to her brain, and in November she announced it had spread to her bones.

“I’m not done living,” she told People magazine this month as she prepared to launch a new podcast discussing her life and career. “I’m not done loving. I’m not done creating. I’m not done changing things hopefully for the better.”

An actress since childhood, Ms. Doherty first specialized in healthy food before developing a fast-moving TV personality that merged with her personal life. After being arrested and charged with drink-driving and assault, she earned a reputation in the tabloids and entertainment press as a hard-partying Hollywood “bad girl.” Her colleagues complained of diva-like behavior, culminating in acrimonious departures from her two best-known shows.

As a child, she voiced a precocious, anthropomorphic mouse in the animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982) and played the ponytail-wearing Jenny Wilder in the final season of NBC’s pioneering series Little House on the Prairie and in three subsequent television films based on the humble series.

Her work in “Prairie” led to a starring role opposite Wilford Brimley in the NBC family drama “Our House,” in which she played a spirited teenager who dreams of following her late father into the Air Force. The series ended after two seasons, and Ms. Doherty soon rose to wider prominence with a supporting role in the 1988 black comedy “Heathers,” which marked a notable character transformation.

Ms. Doherty played the scheming Heather Duke, one of several girls in a popular high school clique known as “the Heathers,” who are tormented by a sociopath and his remorse-ridden accomplice, played by Christian Slater and Winona Ryder. (Ms. Doherty later appeared in a 2018 television reboot, “Heathers,” for the Paramount Network.)

The film was not a commercial success but received good reviews and caught the attention of television producer Aaron Spelling, who had just left the ABC hit “Dynasty” and was making a new series about the anxieties of teenagers at the fictional West Beverly Hills High. Ms. Doherty, Spelling later said, was “the best young actress I’ve seen in a long time.”

In “Beverly Hills, 90210,” whose title included one of the city’s ZIP codes, Ms. Doherty played Brenda Walsh, a reticent Minnesota native and naive 16-year-old newcomer to posh Beverly Hills. (Ms. Doherty was 19 when the series premiered on Fox in 1990.)

Starring on screen were Jason Priestley, who played her twin brother, Luke Perry, an occasional lover, Jennie Garth and Ian Ziering, who played spoiled classmates, and Tori Spelling, the producer’s daughter, as a level-headed friend.

As “90210” reached a mass audience, Ms. Doherty’s public image began to crumble. Stories circulated about her partying, her rude treatment of coworkers, her lateness to work and her extravagant shopping sprees. Her wages were garnished to repay nearly $32,000 in bad checks.

Doherty’s turbulent love life also became a constant topic of tabloid coverage. There were several engagements; one fiancé, cosmetics heir Dean Factor, claimed she had threatened him with a gun and tried to run him over with a car (“If I really wanted to run him over, I wouldn’t have missed,” she later said); and an impromptu wedding to Ashley Hamilton, the son of actor George Hamilton. The marriage lasted about six months.

For many fans of the show, Ms. Doherty’s actions were a betrayal of the original moralistic character she played on television. When Brenda underwent a transformation in the show’s second season and became increasingly bad-tempered, fans revolted and formed an anti-Doherty fan club, which received national press attention for its “Hating Brenda” record and “I Hate Brenda” bumper stickers.

Ms. Doherty left the show in 1994 in what she called a “mutual decision” with producer Spelling. To explain her lead character’s exit, the script called for her to head off to London to train as an actress. She later reprised the role in several episodes of “90210,” a reboot that aired on the CW Network from 2008 to 2013, and in “BH90210,” which aired on Fox in 2019 and featured many of her original co-stars.

Shannen Maria Doherty was born in Memphis on April 12, 1971. Her father bought a trucking company and moved the family to Los Angeles when she was about six years old. His business collapsed a few years later, leaving the family in financial difficulties just as Ms. Doherty was starting to act. Her mother worked as a beautician.

As Ms. Doherty’s fame grew in the 1990s, she acted in television movies and low-budget films, landing a small role in actor-director Kevin Smith’s slacker comedy “Mallrats” (1995). She also reteamed with Aaron Spelling on the WB drama “Charmed,” about three sisters with magical powers. The critically acclaimed film was the network’s highest-rated debut when it premiered in 1998.

Ms. Doherty played the older sister, the telekinetic witch Prue, for three seasons before leaving the show in 2001, being killed off and replaced by Rose McGowan in the role of a newfound half-sister. As with the original “90210” series, Ms. Doherty’s exit followed disputes with Spelling and her co-stars Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano.

She played another supernatural role, a witch investigating her sister’s death, in the Spelling-produced television movie Satan’s School for Girls (2000). She later hosted a season of the prank show Scare Tactics on the Syfy Channel.

A brief marriage to poker player Rick Salomon in 2002 ended in divorce the following year. She later hosted the Oxygen channel reality show Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty (2006), where she helped people break out of toxic relationships.

Ms. Doherty married Kurt Iswarienko in 2011. She filed for divorce last year.

Full information on survivors was not immediately available.

In 2010, Ms. Doherty published a memoir and self-help book titled Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life With Style and (the Right) Attitude. Her most recent film roles included appearances in the boxing film Back in the Day (2016) and the James Franco-directed biopic Bukowski (2013), in which she played the mother of the eponymous poet.

“I can’t fight what people think of me,” she told the New York Post while promoting her reality series. “I’ve tried everybody out there. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve tried desperately to get a second chance in the media, but I haven’t been given one. At this point, I kind of have to stop and do what makes me happy.”