Shannen Doherty, Charmed & Beverly Hills, 90210 Star, Dead At 53

Shannen Doherty, the actor best known for characters Brenda Walsh on "Beverly Hills, 90210" and Prue Halliwell on "Charmed," has died at age 53, according to People. "It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease," Doherty's publicist, Leslie Sloane, told the outlet. Born in 1971, Doherty began acting when she was a kid, with roles on the TV shows "Father Murphy" and "Little House on the Prairie." Doherty's also remembered for her roles in the films "Heathers" and "Mallrats."

In 2015, Doherty was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. But after going into remission in 2017, she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer two years later. After keeping her diagnosis a secret, Doherty decided to make a public announcement. Doherty was determined not to let health challenges keep her from doing what she loved, including performing. "I think we probably work harder than anyone because we have so much more to prove," Doherty explained to Variety in 2021. "If we can fight cancer, we can certainly go do a job."

In June 2023, Doherty announced that a cancerous tumor had been removed from her brain at the beginning of the year. By the end of November, she reported that cancer had spread to her bones. Despite this daunting diagnosis, Doherty was committed to keep working. "I'm not done with creating. I'm not done with hopefully changing things for the better," the actor informed People.

"Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty" dropped on December 6, 2023. Shannen Doherty planned to use her podcast as a memoir detailing her personal and professional life. While this podcast was a first for her, Doherty believed the format was a more interactive way to share her story, compared to writing a book. Besides discussing memories from her career as a child and adult actor with former co-stars, Doherty also planned an episode to discuss her romantic past, including her three marriages. In particular, she wanted to clarify details concerning the dissolution of her marriage with Kurt Iswarienko. The couple split in April 2023, and in December, Doherty posted on Instagram that she was dismayed about a TMZ article that falsely suugested she and Iswarienko had an open marriage. 

Doherty also got candid about dealing with cancer on the podcast. In her inaugural episode, she detailed future plans to include doctors as guests, to make her show a resource for audience members with similar health struggles. "What better thing to use my platform for than to help other people with cancer?" Doherty said during the podcast's first episode. "Maybe everything else in my life, my career and all of that was really just to get me to this place . . . where I can actually make a difference for others."