Jennie Garth, Rose McGowan, Holly Marie Combs and More ‘Charmed’ and ‘90210’ Costars Remember Shannen Doherty at 90s Con
Charmed stars Holly Marie Combs, Rose McGowan and Dorian Gregory, and Beverly Hills, 90210 stars Jennie Garth, Gabrielle Carteris and Brian Austin Green remembered former costar Shannen Doherty two months after her death at the Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed panels at 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Beverly Hills, 90210
The cast of Beverly Hills 90210, courtesy of Everett Collection
The Beverly Hills, 90210 panel began with the audience giving a special cheer in Doherty’s honor. “To see how much she means to all of you,” Jennie Garth said, “she was a very special woman, and we miss her so much.”
Her former costars found a lot of meaning, and a lot to honor, in Doherty’s openness about her long battle with breast cancer. “I have a friend right now who’s really sick with cancer, and she said that Shannen really inspired her,” Gabrielle Carteris said. “So I think that the legacy is truly making a difference for those who are struggling to know that there’s hope.”
Shannen Doherty tribute banner from 90s Con, Daytona Beach, 2024, courtesy of Karen Ruud
“She was so honored by the fact that everyone was so supportive and loving to her when she was at these events,” Brian Austin Green said. “She’s, to me, an amazing example for anyone. The way she put her own challenges aside and really wanted to share the experience of all of it, it was incredibly brave. I mean, going through something as difficult as that, and being open to completely being transparent, to share with everyone, is a huge thing.”
After a career as a child actor on Little House on the Prairie, playing Jenny Wilder in 1982, Doherty turned up in teen films like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (1985) and Heathers (1989). But her breakthrough role was as Brenda Walsh, a Midwestern teen dropped into the wild excess of 1980s Beverly Hills, on Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990. The series shot her to superstardom, but Doherty left the show in 1994.
Charmed
Paramount Television/courtesy Everett Collection
The panel for Charmed — which Doherty starred in for three seasons, from 1998 to 2001 — was immediately emotional. “It’s really hard to keep it together and talk publicly,” said Rose McGowan. “We will continue to do so, but it’s enough at this point. It’s amazing and incredible to share that love and that moment, but it’s not a casual question for us, I’m sorry. It’s a lot.”
“It’s personal,” added Combs.
Shannen Doherty memorial at 90s Con, Daytona Beach, 2024, courtesy Karen Ruud
The night before, Combs, McGowan, Brian Krause, Drew Fuller and Gregory had recorded a special episode of the Charmed rewatch podcast House of Halliwell — a podcast taping that Doherty had set up, as she was joining the show as a cohost. Instead, the episode, which had Brian Austin Green as a guest, turned into a tribute to Doherty’s life.
“Shannen was f—ing tough,” Green said on the podcast. “She was tough. I think of all the people in my life she was the one that just unapologetically was Shannen. I can see how it would be perceived by some people as brash, ‘She’s a b—-‘ they used to say early on, which drove me nuts. I knew that she had the biggest heart of everyone I knew, and she never intentionally set out to hurt anyone … she just truly believed in what it is she believed.”
McGowan added during the podcast that Doherty had the “heart of a g—— lion” and was a “powerhouse.” Speaking to Shannen’s struggles with having to deal with being considered “difficult,” McGowan recalled: “What Shannen did for me, which was so incredible to watch, she kept engaging with people, she kept going forward.”
Shannen Doherty memorial at 90s Con, Daytona, 2024, courtesy Karen Ruud
The podcast taping, Gregory said during the panel, was a chance to learn more about Doherty’s life and career, the “professionalism of someone who’s been doing this since she was 8 … not just professionalism, that’s so trite, her passion. I get the chance to find out something new about everybody that I have known for such a long time continually, and Shannen, specifically, because she holds such a special place for me,” Gregory went on. “To continue to find out things about her that I never knew, the depth of that, is what really sits with me and never goes away.”
Shannen Doherty, courtesy of Everett Collection
After appearing on a number of reality shows and made-for-TV movies in the 2000s, Doherty reprised her role as Brenda Walsh in the first season of the 2008 Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff 90210. She competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2010, and in 2015, she and former Charmed costar Combs appeared on the travel show Off the Map With Shannen & Holly. In 2018, she appeared on the TV show adaptation of Heathers, which was pulled from schedules due to the Parkland school shooting, and in 2019, she starred in the meta-reboot BH90210, in which she and her old Beverly Hills costars played versions of themselves, preparing for a reboot of the show. She also hosted her own podcast, Let’s Be Clear, from December 2023 until her death.
Doherty died on July 13, 2024, at age 53, after a long battle with breast cancer.
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