The ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ Actress Was 53

Shannen Doherty has died after years of residing with most cancers, PEOPLE has confirmed. She was 53.

“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I affirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she misplaced her battle with most cancers after a few years of preventing the illness,” Doherty’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed in an unique assertion to PEOPLE on Sunday, July 14.

“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and good friend was surrounded by her family members in addition to her canine, Bowie. The household asks for his or her privateness presently to allow them to grieve in peace,” Sloane continued.

The Beverly Hills 90210 star was first identified with breast most cancers in 2015 and spoke candidly to PEOPLE in November 2023 about her Stage 4 breast most cancers, which had by then unfold to her bones, saying on the time that she did not “wish to die.”

“I’m not finished with residing. I’m not finished with loving. I’m not finished with creating. I’m not finished with hopefully altering issues for the higher,” she informed PEOPLE. “I’m simply not — I’m not finished.”

Following her 2015 prognosis, the actress revealed in April 2017 that she had gone into remission, nonetheless, by 2019, the most cancers returned. The next 12 months Doherty introduced her prognosis of metastatic stage 4 most cancers. Then, in June of 2023, the actress shared that the most cancers had unfold to her mind and that she had undergone surgical procedure.

Doherty posted on Instagram on June 6, 2023, sharing that the most cancers had unfold to her mind. Then, later the identical month in one other put up, that she had undergone surgical procedure in January 2023 to take away a mind tumor, which she had named Bob.

“He needed to get eliminated and dissected to see his pathology,” she informed PEOPLE in August 2023. “It was undoubtedly one of many scariest issues I’ve ever been via in my whole life.”

Regardless of that, the actress was decided to proceed working as she lived with the illness.

“Folks simply assume that it means you possibly can’t stroll, you possibly can’t eat, you possibly can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a really early age —‘You’re finished, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she mentioned, including “We’re vibrant, and we have now such a unique outlook on life. We’re individuals who wish to work and embrace life and maintain transferring ahead.”

Certainly, earlier than her dying, Doherty hoped to boost consciousness and funds for most cancers analysis — on the identical time exhibiting others that folks like herself, with terminal most cancers, are nonetheless people with a lot to contribute.

“If you ask your self, ‘Why me? Why did I get most cancers?’ after which ‘Why did my most cancers come again? Why am I stage 4?,’ that leads you to search for the larger goal in life,” she mentioned.

Her candid feedback echoed her phrases from a 2020 interview with Amy Robach that aired on Good Morning America, through which she was equally pragmatic.

“I undoubtedly have days the place I say, ‘Why me?'” Doherty informed Robach on the time of the event in her well being on the time. “After which I’m going, nicely, ‘Why not me? Who else? Who else in addition to me deserves this?’ None of us do.”

That interview with Robach marked Doherty first revealing her breast most cancers had returned as stage 4 most cancers after she had beforehand gone into remission.

“It will come out in a matter of days or every week that I am stage 4. So my most cancers got here again, and that is why I am right here,” Doherty mentioned on Good Morning America. “I do not assume I’ve processed it. It is a bitter tablet to swallow in lots of methods.”

Though she gained reward for overtly speaking about residing with most cancers later in life, Doherty rose to fame as Brenda Walsh on the unique Beverly Hills, 90210, which premiered in October 1990.

The actress left the present after the fourth season in 1994. (She later revisited the character with a number of visitor appearances on the 2008 reboot 90210.)

After her Beverly Hills fame, Doherty was solid in Charmed as Prue Halliwell, the oldest of three sisters who’re witches. Together with starring within the sequence, she additionally directed a number of episodes, she left the present on the finish of the third season in 2001.

Doherty labored steadily all through her profession and even ventured into actuality tv with the short-lived Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty and as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

In 2019, she signed on to hitch the TV reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210, as soon as once more taking part in an grownup model of the character that made her well-known.

Although the actress mentioned she was conscious of her stage 4 most cancers prognosis, she stored it a secret from the solid after the surprising dying of her costar Luke Perry in March 2019 at age 52.

“It is so bizarre for me to be identified after which any individual who was, you realize, seemingly wholesome to go first,” Doherty mentioned on Good Morning America in 2020. “It was actually, like, surprising.”

Doherty mentioned collaborating within the TV reboot, which aired on Fox, was the “least I may do” to honor Perry — and it was additionally a chance to show that she may proceed to work regardless of her well being.

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free every day publication to remain up-to-date on one of the best of what PEOPLE has to supply, from juicy movie star information to driving human curiosity tales.

“One of many causes, together with Luke, that I did 90210 and did not actually inform anyone [was] as a result of I assumed, folks can have a look at that [as] folks with stage 4 can work too,” she defined.

Her energy was acknowledged by her fellow actors on the present, with Brian Austin Inexperienced talking to PEOPLE in reward of her.

“Shannen is totally main by instance and exhibiting those who even within the hardest of instances, you possibly can maintain your head up and also you is usually a good individual,” Austin Inexperienced mentioned. “And she or he is: She’s an incredible individual and an inspiration.”

Most poignantly, Doherty talked in her 2023 PEOPLE interview about her love of life, her gratitude for with the ability to get up and spend time along with her household, pals and canine and her hopeful strategy to the longer term.

“My best reminiscence is but to return,” she informed PEOPLE. “I pray. I get up and go to mattress thanking God, praying for the issues that matter to me with out asking for an excessive amount of. It connects me to the next energy and spirituality. My religion is my mantra.”

She shared that most cancers had made her extra conscious of life and the world round her.

“I do know it sounds tacky and loopy, however you’re simply extra conscious of every part, and you’re feeling so blessed. We’re the individuals who wish to work essentially the most, as a result of we’re simply so grateful for each second, each hour, each day we get to be right here.”

 An early draft of this text was written by Jodi Guglielmi and Aili Nahas.