Hollywood encountered another tragedy.
Shannen Doherty – who rose to fame playing Brenda Walsh on the hit 1990s Fox show Beverly Hills 90210 – passed away at the age of 53 following a long battle with breast cancer.
While the famed actress previously acknowledged the health struggle publicly, it is some of her haunting final messages that have shocked everyone.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress, Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13th she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease. The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie,” a statement from Doherty’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, read.
“The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” the statement continued.
Beverly Hills 90210 was a show that defined cool for teenagers in the early to mid-1990s.
The original cast members – Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Luke Perry, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, and Tori Spelling – all became teen heartthrobs as the show ran for 10 seasons.
Doherty’s Brenda character’s relationship with Perry’s Dylan was one of the storylines that shot the show to hit status.
Doherty diagnosed with breast cancer
Doctors diagnosed Doherty with breast cancer.
It went into remission in 2017.
But it returned in 2020.
Last November, Doherty announced the cancer spread to her brain and bones.
Facing certain death, Doherty didn’t give in to despair.
“I’m not afraid of death,” Doherty said in an interview with People Magazine.
“I know where I’m going. I know… the people that I’m gonna see. I think I would be afraid of death if I wasn’t a good person. But I am,” Doherty added.
Doherty told her friend Chris Cortazzo during an episode of her podcast that she was making preparations for her funeral.
“It’s come up a couple of times, but it really came up when I was about to go in for brain surgery in January,” Doherty said of how she wanted to plan her funeral.
“I didn’t think that I was going to make it. I redid my will and I made sure everything was like super clear,” Doherty continued.
Doherty hinted that there were former castmates she worked with who never got along with her who would feel obligated to show up.
Doherty explained she didn’t want that, so she wanted preparations for her funeral to include making sure people who didn’t like her in the first place felt no obligation to attend just so people wouldn’t see them there.
“I was pleasantly surprised at my dad’s [funeral] of who showed up. But it made me start thinking about who would show up to mine. And there’s a lot of people that I think would show up that I don’t want there,” Doherty explained.
“I don’t want them there. Because the reasons for showing up aren’t necessarily the best reasons,” Doherty stated.
“They don’t actually really like me enough to show up to my funeral. But they will, because it’s the politically correct thing to do, and they don’t want to look bad. And so, I kind of want to take that pressure off of them,” Doherty concluded.
