Inside Shannen Doherty’s Life, From Child Star to Hollywood Icon

The late Shannen Doherty was a television and movie icon; she’ll forever be known as Brenda Walsh in “Beverly Hills, 90210,” but she was also in a handful of cult classic movies like “Heathers” and “Mallrats.” Despite her Hollywood success, Doherty had no shortage of on-set drama that nearly ruined her career more than once. The star was no stranger to negative headlines and feuds with co-stars over the years, but she still managed to push past and continue a thriving acting career.

She started acting as a child

After a childhood in Tennessee, she started in plays before her family moved to LA when she was seven, and she landed TV roles with “Little House on the Prairie” and other projects. Her career exploded at age 19 with “90210,” which changed everything for Doherty. Her life would never be the same.

She wasn’t prepared for the fame that “Beverly Hills, 90210” caused

This teen drama brought a new kind of fame (and pressure) to Doherty, who said she was “accosted in malls” and had the role take over her life. Her character was stuck-up, and people couldn’t separate the role from the human, taking a toll on the actor who constantly dealt with negative feedback from the public and in the tabloids.

A bad reputation earned on set

Many were confused when Doherty left “90210” at the peak of its popularity, but she was so miserable, she didn’t feel as though she had a choice. She told Entertainment Weekly that the “sacrifice of a camera pointed in my face 24 hours a day” was simply too much. She also wasn’t happy with the new scripts, leading her coworkers to call her “callous.” Doherty also had several run-ins with the law throughout her career, was required to attend anger management counseling, and often wrote bad checks.

Tension on the set of “Charmed”

In 1998, Doherty joined “Charmed,” which lasted eight seasons, but she left after three. She was portrayed as the villain in the situation, just like in the last show she was on. She went after a co-star (reportedly Alyssa Milano) and said that despite the job being easy and paying well, all she did was complain. Milano later took responsibility for much of the tension, saying it stemmed from a competitive mindset rather than from the sisterhood mentality the show was about.