After 90210 took off, Shannen
Doherty became almost as famous for
her offscreen headlines, including two
marriages that both fell apart after less
than a year, a lawsuit over writing bad
checks and a Playboy pictorial.
Nearly three decades later, no one
was more embarrassed than the
actress herself. “There are moments
when I’ll drop my head in my hands
and go, ‘What was I thinking?’ ”
Doherty told People in 2012. “But if it
weren’t for the mistakes I made, I
wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Doherty’s Hollywood days and
nights began when her family
relocated from Memphis to Los
Angeles when she was 6. She landed
commercial work and small parts,
and by the time she was 11, she was
cast on Little House: A New Beginning
opposite Michael Landon. “That
show changed my life,’’ Doherty said.
“Michael Landon was the one who said
to me, ‘Always stick up for yourself.
Never let anybody walk all over you.
Be a strong woman.’ ”
After appearing in films including
1989’s Heathers, Doherty made her
debut as Brenda. Soon tabloids were
chronicling her after-hours behavior as
well as her on-set clashes with costars.
“People think I’m a bitch,” Doherty said
in 1992. “I’m a strong woman. There
are still some people out there who
can’t deal with that.”
But her public behavior was masking
a private pain. Doherty’s father, John
Thomas, was severely ill, and Shannen
later told People she had been
supporting her family. “I wanted him to
have the best medical care possible. I
had to be so responsible in that area of
my life that I was acting out in other
areas.” (His death in 2010 at age 66“completely changed me,” she said.)
She left 90210 after four seasons and
in 1998 became one of three witchy
sisters in the Aaron Spelling-produced
series Charmed, where there were
reports of tensions with costar Alyssa
Milano. Doherty then became a regular
on reality TV shows and returned
briefly to Beverly Hills. When the CW
network rebooted 90210 in 2008, she
guest-starred as Brenda, who had
become a successful actress and
theater director.
These days Doherty is happily
married to photographer Kurt
Iswarienko and, after a 2015 diagnosis
that led to a mastectomy, a breast
cancer survivor. “I was always used to
being the strong one, and during that
time period, every wall I’d built up in
my life came down,” she told Health
of her cancer recovery. “I also had a lot
more time to look at myself and say,
‘I’m a pretty okay person,’ and cut
myself some slack.” As brutal as it
was, she says, rebounding from the
disease was “a gift.”SPEAKING
HER MIND
THERE WERE SPEED
BUMPS (LOTS OF THEM)
AS SHANNEN DOHERTY
GREW UP IN PUBLIC
BEVERLY HILLS 90210 PEOPLE 25
ADVOCATE
Doherty shared her experiences
with breast cancer at an
American Cancer Society gala in- Right: in N.Y.C. in 2018.