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Memphis, Tennessee
April 12, 1971
Doherty was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Rosa, a beauty parlor owner, and Tom Doherty, a mortgage consultant.
In 1978, when Doherty was seven, her family moved to Los Angeles and she immediately announced that she wanted to be an actress.
Little House on the Prairie
September 27, 1982 - March 21, 1983
Success began early, with guest spots on TV series including Voyagers! and Father Murphy. When a casting notice was released in Hollywood for a regular role on the popular Little House on the Prairie she leapt at the opportunity and eventually won the role of Jenny Wilder at the age of eleven, thanks in part to actor Michael Landon seeing her guest spot on Father Murphy.
Our House
September 11, 1986 - May 8, 1988
Doherty was cast as the oldest Witherspoon sibling, Kris, on the family drama Our House, which ran from 1986 to 1988.
Heathers
March 31, 1989
Doherty's first major motion picture role was in Heathers, released in 1989. The film centers on high school student Veronica Sawyer (Ryder).Veronica is part of the most popular clique in Westerburg High School (named for singer Paul Westerberg) in Sherwood, a fictional suburb of Columbus, Ohio. In addition to Veronica, the clique is composed of three pretty and wealthy girls with the same first name: Heather Chandler (Walker), Heather Duke (Doherty), and Heather McNamara (Falk). These mean-spirited girls play croquet with each other, use their own unique slang, and even purge together. Even though they are adored by most other students, the Heathers despise everyone outside their clique and continuously bully socially awkward classmates such as the overweight Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock.
Beverly Hills 90210
October 4, 1990 - May 25, 1994
Doherty starred in the Aaron Spelling-produced TV series Beverly Hills 90210 for four years, from 1990 to 1994. Her departure from the series was reportedly acrimonious, however, and her career afterward was somewhat spotty.
The show followed the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School and then-fictitious California University. Originally the central characters were twins Brandon (played by Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (played by Shannen Doherty), who moved with their parents, Jim and Cindy, from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Beverly Hills.
The show initially focused on their struggles with culture shock and their relationships with their new Beverly Hills friends. The key exploration of her character came during a series of episodes involving a forbidden romance with Brandon's loner friend Dylan McKay—who had long had the attention of Brenda's best friend Kelly as well. Brenda and Dylan dated for two years, and their relationship became serious very fast.
Ashley Hamiliton
September 24, 1993
Married Ashley Hamilton, son of George Hamilton. Divorced in April 1994.
Mallrats
October 20, 1995
Doherty lands a lead role in Kevin Smith's film Mallrats.
Shannen Doherty was the most famous cast member of Mallrats after her appearances in movies and the hit TV shows Little House on the Prairie and Beverly Hills 90210.
Mallrats was the subject of much critical derision when it was released, with many critics comparing it unfavorably to Smith's first film, Clerks. In his negative review of the film, critic Roger Ebert said "Before Mallrats was released, I chaired a panel that Smith participated in and Kevin Smith cheerfully said he'd be happy to do whatever the studios wanted, if they'd pay for his films. At the time, I thought he was joking." Kevin Smith responded by apologizing for Mallrats at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards, though he later stated that the apology was made in jest. Nevertheless, the film developed a strong cult following after it was released on video.
Anger Management
September 12, 1997
Doherty was sentenced to anger-management counseling by the Beverly Hills Municipal Court for an incident that occurred in August 1996; she got into an argument with 22 year old Corey Hanker and smashed a beer bottle on his car window as he tried to drive away from her.
Charmed
October 7, 1998 - May 17, 2001
In 1998, Spelling cast Doherty in another TV series, Charmed, in which she played Prue Halliwell, the oldest of three sisters who discover they are witches, along with occasionally directing some of the episodes. She left that series in 2001, after three years. She asked to be let out of her contract, due to a feud with co-star Alyssa Milano. Though she had left the show long before it ended, she owns five percent of the rights to the series.
Charmed was about three sisters who are the world's most powerful good witches, known throughout the supernatural community as "The Charmed Ones", but known to everyone else as the Halliwells. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a house they call the manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate San Francisco, California.
Drunk driving
December 27, 2001
Just two days after Christmas, the Charmed heartbreaker was spotted driving her 2001 Ford pickup truck erratically on a highway outside of Los Angeles. At approximately 3 AM that morning, she was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol, and the officers on the scene “observed subjective symptoms of alcohol.” Reports reveal that Doherty was officially arrested on “suspicion of drunk driving.”
Doherty was sentenced to either ten days in jail or twenty days of work-release duty, three years probation, and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine.
Rick Solomon
January 25, 2002
Doherty married Traffic filmmaker and internet gambling site owner Rick Solomon. The marriage was annulled in 2003 when she decided to call it quits and end her union Solomon because she was less than impressed with his recent antics.
Shannen Doherty and hotel heiress Paris Hilton had a blazing row at a party over Doherty's soon-to-be-ex-husband, Rick Salomon. Gossip bible Pagesix.Com reports that the incident happened at Deluxe, a weekly bash held behind the Las Palmas restaurant in Hollywood. An insider says that when the two saw each other Paris allegedly "marched up to Shannen and started yelling at her, saying, 'Leave Rick alone!'" There has been bad blood between the pair since Rick, 33, rekindled his on-off relationship with 21-year-old Paris. The source says, "Paris and Rick have been holed up at the Beverly Hills Hotel for 10 days partying hard and he hasn't gone home to see his two children (by another woman). Paris has been leaving threatening messages on Shannen's machine and Shannen is sick of it." But, a spokeswoman for Paris blamed the argument on Shannen, saying, "Shannen grabbed Paris' face and punched her. Then Shannen followed her, and egged her car, and wrote profanities on her car in red lipstick." Leslie Sloan Zelnik, who represents Shannen, says, "The two did have a conversation. Shannen didn't touch her, didn't egg her car or write profanities in red lipstick. Shannen doesn't wear red lipstick." The insider says that fiery Shannen, 31, told Paris, "Listen, I am through with Rick. You can have him, but you need to let him go home to his kids and get help. Shannen has seen a lawyer about the threatening messages Paris left her. She hasn't filed a restraining order yet, but is thinking about it."
Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty
August 22, 2006 - November 7, 2006
In Oxygen's newest reality series Breaking up with Shannen Doherty, Shannen comes to the rescue of men and women who need her expert assistance to break free. In each episode, Shannen puts the relationship and the "break-ee" to the test by creating a bogus situation caught on hidden cameras. And Shannen will be waiting in the wings to put the relationship out of its misery and deliver the news in her own unique way.
