Goodbye Shannen
Shannen Doherty has lost her fight with breast cancer. Given the events of the weekend, it’s all too easy to overlook the passing of one of the great genre actresses of Generation X and that would be a shame.
Doherty started out as a child actress in the early 1980s. Her first appearance was in the Chariots of the Gods futureman hippie babble show, The Phoenix, where she played “Little Girl.” Her next three parts were in varied genre projects The Secret on NIMH, Night Shift, and the time travel series Voyagers! Her first regular work was on Little House on the Prairie.
She spent most of the decade bouncing around doing guest star work racking 13 appearances on shows like Air Wolf, Alf and Magnum PI between 1983 and 1986 before landing her first teenage gig on Our House which lasted two years.
Her breakout role was of course as Heather Duke in Heathers. “I prayed for the death of Heather Chandler many times and I felt bad everytime I did it but I kept doing it anyway. Now I know you understood everything. Praise Jesus, Hallelujah!”
In that moment Doherty acquired the persona that would follow her for the rest of her career. She became the Generation X girl with sharp teeth, plenty of moxie, and an I don’t give a shit attitude. She was one of us and we knew it.
She became a household name as Brenda in Beverly Hills 90210 and I’ll be honest here, I never watched a single episode of it. She had a reputation for being difficult on the show, she was frequently late and had a frenemy relationship with Jennie Garth that at one point escalated to physical violence. Garth for her part maintains that it was mutual and she was also at fault, they were close friends at the time of Doherty’s death. A lot of the rumors were overblown by an LA newsletter published during the height of 90210’s popularity called “I Hate Brenda,” it featured a Shannen Snitchline where anyone could call in with rumors about Doherty.
“I have a rep. Did I earn it? Yeah, I did. But, after a while, you sort of try to shed that rep because you’re kind of a different person. You’ve evolved and all of the bad things you’ve done in your life have brought you to a much better place.”
After 90210, Doherty hit the indie circuit, her most famous role from that period was Mallrats.
1998 her old boss Arron Spelling hired her again to play the Eldest sister in Charmed. Again her reputation followed her this time the feud was with Alissa Milano and frankly, I will take anyone’s side against Milano. Spelling had to fire one of them and for whatever reason Milano was the bigger draw.
While she never got another job as high profile, she was never out of work either, Shannen picked up thirty-seven acting credits over the next twenty years. Although, her personal life never stopped being chaotic. She went through three husbands and was an open Republican at a time that that was career poison.
In 2015 Shannen Doherty announced that she had breast cancer, and would spend the next nine years fighting it.
Her last part was in The Darkness of Man in 2024.
“My Inner Child is not wounded.”
-Shannen Doherty
RIP
1971-2024
