Shannen Doherty was the quintessential Hollywood bad girl of the Nineties who starred in culture-defining projects like Beverly Hills, 90210, Heathers, and Charmed, and courted controversy in the tabloids for her high-profile feuds and tumultuous romantic life.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Doherty and her family relocated to Los Angeles in 1977. Five years later, the young star got her big break when she landed a role in Little House on the Prairie at just 11 years-old, starring alongside Michael Landon. Afterwards, in 1985, she played Sarah Jessica Parker's little sister in the criminally underrated Eighties teen movie, Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

In 1992, Doherty became a household name with her role as teenage chaos agent and drama factory Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210. The set of the Fox television show was notoriously known for drama between Doherty and her co-stars, mainly Jennie Garth. “If you consider ‘difficult’ being a strong woman who sticks up for herself, yeah, I admit to it,” Doherty told Rolling Stone in an infamous cover story. “I’m open to different ideas, but if you get on my bad side and don’t listen to me and you don’t treat me with as much respect as you treat a man, you’ve got a problem.” That same cover story caused even more difficulty on set after Doherty, Luke Perry, and Jason Priestly were featured rather than the entire cast.

Doherty eventually left the show in 1994. Four years later, she joined the cast of Charmed, leaving after only three seasons after disagreements with her co-star Alyssa Milano. While her professional resume, multiple engagements and divorces, painted the actor as a problematic diva, Doherty opted to purge the drama from her life and took on smaller acting roles.

"She always had that wonderfully cocky grin," Rob Sheffield wrote in 2024. "It was that grin, more than anything, that made her controversial. It wasn’t her brief marriages or her “difficult” work rep or her tabloid feuds that made her Hollywood’s most hated woman — it was the smile, her cool self-satisfied look of knowing she was the shit. That’s what America could not forgive her for — she loved being Shannen Doherty and refused to apologize for it," he added.

In 2015, Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer. By 2017, she was in remission, but the cancer returned in 2020 and advanced to stage-four. Through her social media accounts, Doherty continued to share updates on her health and provided a detailed account of the realities of the disease. In 2023, Doherty announced that the cancer had spread to her brain and was terminal. Until the end of her life, the actor continued to try new treatments to fight her disease. Doherty died on July 13, 2024 after a nine-year, public battle with cancer.