The TV world mourns the loss of a talented actress, author, and director as news broke of the passing of Shannen Doherty after several years of battling cancer.
If you grew up in the ’90s, you might recognize Shannen from the teen coming-of-age drama Beverly Hills, 90210 as Brenda Walsh. But for this viewer, she was another claim to fame for our fair city of Memphis. Greatness grows in the 901 of Tennessee.
While Beverly Hills, 90210 might have given Doherty her biggest acting break, she didn’t stop there once her career took off. We’re here to remember the magic left behind by Shannen’s forty years in the filming industry with this Shannen Doherty career retrospective.
It boasted no known stars (with the possible exception of Matthew Modine in a small role), and its Stand By Me-meets-The X-Files premise threatened to leave viewers scratching their heads. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Shannen Doherty Career Retrospective
Shannen Doherty may have been born in the M, but she moved to LA at the tender age of seven, which led to her scoring several smaller gigs before finding success in roles that launched her career.
Related: Shannen Doherty Remembered by Family and Colleagues
Her charm and talents helped her get her first shot at acting in Father Murphy, a two-year family western-style series where Shannen played in two episodes. It gave her the cred to get her first big recurring role in our favorite book-turned-TV series.
Little House on the Prairie
(NBC (YouTube Screenshot))
Before the success of book to film adaptations like Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey, TV execs got inspiration from anthology books like Little House on the Prairie.
The TV adaptation of the book featured our beloved Doherty as the cheerful and strong-willed Jenny Wilder in the series’ ninth and last season, which consisted of 18 episodes. She reprised the role in three TV movies made after the series ended.
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Headliners Michael Landon (Charles Ingalls) and Karen Grassle (Caroline Quiner Ingalls) left the show after the eighth season, making the ninth season technically a series sequel named Little House: A New Beginning.
Our House
After her success on Little House on the Prairie, Shannen did some random one-off appearances on various TV shows and movies for several years before scoring her next recurring role as Kris Witherspoon on Our House.
(NBC (YouTube Screenshot))
Fans spent two seasons appreciating the acting chops of a young Shannen as she and her two siblings moved with their mother to live with their paternal grandfather after her father’s death.
She excelled at the role of a coming-of-age preteen struggling with drastic life changes, like a deceased father, a mother recently jumping back into the dating pool, a new school and home, and living with a grandfather she barely knows.
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Heathers
Among Doherty’s many movie appearances, she had roles in several popular classics, including Heathers. Shannen played Heather Duke, a member of the popular high school clique at Westerburg High.
Among big names like Christian Slater and Winona Ryder, Doherty and her friends, all named Heather, rule the school as the clique everyone wants to belong to and hates if they don’t.
(New World Pictures (YouTube Screenshot))
Heather was the perfect role for Shannen to portray, breaking her out of the role of the sweet, curious young girl and putting her on the path to landing some of her most successful roles as a young woman.
Years later, Shannen joined the single season Heathers TV series remake for three episodes. She played Dr. Destiny, the mother of JD, the head jock of the It group.
Beverly Hills, 90210
Brenda Walsh was Doherty’s biggest breakout role, putting her on the map for all generations. Beverly Hills, 90210 is one of those series that takes you back to the amazing times of the last century when things were so much simpler.
(Fox (YouTube Screenshot))
Not that the crew from the 90210 would agree that things were easy. The coming-of-age drama was full of teen angst, relationship hardships, and friendship frustrations. It captured everything about the teen years for the nation to love.
Brenda was part of a Beverly Hills group of eight high school friends exploring the complexities of young adulthood. During the four years and 111 episodes where Doherty played Walsh, her character had an on-and-off relationship with Dylan McKay, played by the late Luke Perry (Riverdale).
Related: TV’s Most Complicated Father-Son Relationships
Beverly Hills, 90210 jumpstarted numerous careers of the young up-and-coming celebrities of the ’90s, including Shannen’s on-screen twin brother, Brandon, played by Jason Priestley. Other names included Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, Jenny Garth, Ian Ziering, and Gabrielle Carteris.
Amid the many nostalgic reboots, The CW launched the remake, titled simply 90210, which did not have as much success as its predecessor. During the reboot, Shannen delighted us as she returned as Brenda for seven of the 114 episodes.
(The CW (Youtube Screenshot))
Beverly Hills, 90210 was such a big hit that it even inspired a single-season spinoff, BH90210, about the original seven cast members working on a reboot in an exaggerated reality show setting.
Everyone was as themselves considering resuming their previous 90210 identities, including Doherty as Brenda.
Mallrats
In the ’90s, hanging out at the mall was the thing to do if you wanted to look cool. Those who spent all their free time at the mall came to be known as mall rats.
Comedic genius Kevin Smith decided to create a movie portraying this generation of adolescents and Shannen made the perfect ex-girlfriend of Brodie (played by Jason Lee), Rene.
(Universal Pictures (YouTube Screenshot))
A melting pot of who’s who, Mallrats was a stepping stone for many stars, including the comedy duo Clerks royalty Jay and Silent Bob, played by Jason Mewes and Kevin James. It also featured Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jeremy London as Quint, as the second male main character.
Young adult audiences loved the slapstick comedy and the unique humor of the best friends as they take refuge in a mall with a ragtag group of friends after getting dumped by their girlfriends.
Charmed
While 90210 was Shannen’s foray into coming-of-age teen dramas, her next largest recurring role caught the interest of a broader audience of supernatural fanatics.
(The WB (YouTube Screenshot))
Doherty spent three seasons and 67 episodes playing the role of Prue Halliwell, one of three charmed sister witches who spent their lives protecting the world from evil forces using the Power of Three.
Shannon’s character got killed off at the end of the third season, leaving the show to fill her role with a new sister, played by Rose McGowan, for the remainder of the broadcast.
Doherty addressed her problematic attitude with those she worked with — including her on-screen sisters, Piper and Phoebe, played by Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano — in her 2010 book, “Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life with Style and (the Right) Attitude.”
North Shore
Shannen did a short stint of the briefly running romantic drama North Shore for eleven of the show’s 21 episodes. Her role was Alexandra, one of the beautiful, rich, and famous in Hawaii.
Shannen’s character was a snarky bitch estranged sister of Nicole Booth, played by Brooke Burns.
(Paramount+ (YouTube Screenshot))
The Fox network hoped bringing Shannen onto the show would help save its fledging ratings, despite a cast of beautiful people, like Kristoffer Polaha, Corey Sevier, Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), Dominic Percell (Prison Break), and Jason Momoa (Aquaman).
Unfortunately, her contributions were not enough to extend the show past a single season.
Related: Single-Season Shows That Live On In Our Hearts
Made for TV Movies
When Shannen wasn’t playing recurring roles on the series, fans enjoyed her talents in several Hollywood films and made-for-TV movies.
As with many TV celebrities, Doherty did several TV film Christmas movies during her career. In Christmas Caper, Cate Dove is a criminal thief who returns to her hometown at Christmas time to lay low and hide from the cops.
(Freeform (YouTube Screenshot))
But with the Christmas spirit in full effect, combined with the magic of family, Cate changes her naughty ways just in time to make it a Christmas miracle.
Another Christmas movie that featured Doherty in a Christmas capacity was All I Want for Christmas. She is Brenda Patterson, the mother of a young boy who makes the Christmas wish of having different parents for the holiday.
But once his wish comes true, he wonders if it’s worth all that he’s lost. His new version of parents and life isn’t all he’s expected.
Other than Christmas films, other TV movies include His & Hers (1984), Freeze Frame, Obsessed, A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story, Sleeping with the Devil, Another Day, Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay, Kiss Me Deadly, No One Would Tell, and List of a Lifetime.
Shannen Doherty Single Time Appearances
Like most stars, Doherty appeared on various TV series on a one-off basis. We saw her on classic shows like Voyagers!, Magnum, P.I., Highway to Heaven, The New Leave it to Beaver, 21 Jump Street, Rebel Highway, and Riverdale.
(The CW (YouTube Screenshot))
It’s always fun when you know a celebrity so well that you can spot them in cameo roles on random shows in simple roles.
Shannen’s first cameo was in 1992 on a largely unknown TV series, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. She played herself again in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001.
She also loved popping up in music videos like Slaughter and The Bellamy Brothers. She has a few uncredited roles, like Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and Love, Inc.
Gone But Eternally Glorified in Everything
While Shannen may no longer be here, fans will continue to remember her in spirit and with all of her work.
Share your thoughts about Shannen’s career in the comments below.