Shannen Doherty's Final Instagram Post Is Tragic

On July 13, 2024, actress Shannen Doherty passed away after a cancer odyssey that lasted nearly 10 years. Although she had been dealing with the ramifications of her diagnosis for many years, and announced in 2023 that her cancer had reached a stage in which it was considered terminal, her death came as a shock to fans who had followed the 53-year-old actress's career since she began performing in the 1980s.

In the months leading up to her death, Doherty had found reasons to be optimistic, despite her poor health prognosis. On June 25, she posted on Instagram video footage of her recording an episode of her "Let's Be Clear" podcast. In it, she discussed her upcoming chemotherapy treatment, expressing hope for its success because her doctors had noted that there were recent changes in the molecular structures of her cancer cells. "For the first time in a couple months probably I feel hopeful because there are so many more protocols now, whereas before I was hopeful but I was still getting prepared," she explained. While it's heartbreaking that her treatment was ultimately unsuccessful, it's some consolation to fans to know that she had hope in her final days. 

Shannen Doherty began acting when she was just 10 years old, appearing in two episodes of "Father Murphy" in 1981. A year later, she landed the role of Jenny Wilder on "Little House on the Prairie," playing the niece of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Melissa Gilbert). She made a splash on the big screen in the late 1980s when she was cast in "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Heathers," the latter of which has become one of her most iconic performances. Despite her occasional work in film, she is best known today for the television series that defined her career. 

Between 1990 and 1994, she played Brenda Walsh on "Beverly Hills, 90210," one of the most popular teen show of the early 1990s that had plenty of drama, both on-screen and off. A handful of years later, she struck gold again, this time with the fantasy genre show "Charmed," where she played the eldest of the three Halliwell sisters who discover that they are witches with magical powers. Although those were her biggest hits, Doherty worked steadily through the 2000s, appearing on TV shows like "Riverdale" and "North Shore." She also revisited her past performances, with cameo roles on the TV adaptation of "Heathers" and the reboot of "Beverly Hills, 90210." Her last on-screen credit was for 2024's crime thriller "Darkness of Man" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Shannen Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, upon which she underwent a unilateral mastectomy in an effort to prevent the cancer cells from spreading, although by that point her doctors believed they had already spread to her lymph nodes. In addition to this surgery, she received chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and in 2017, she announced that she was in remission. Sadly, the cancer returned in 2019, and was considered much more advanced than before, eventually spreading to her bones and brain.

In November 2023, Doherty announced that she would be starting a podcast: "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty," which launched in earnest in December. Episodes of the podcast were dedicated to different topics, often featuring retrospectives of Doherty's most famous projects alongside her former co-stars, but other times focusing on discussions pulled from her personal life. Her experiences with cancer were a common topic of conversation, and Doherty never shied away from being vulnerable and honest about her diagnosis. Her last episode was posted on July 8, 2024, and it featured her "Charmed" co-star Holly Marie Combs, their time on the show together, and the return of the "House of Halliwell" podcast.