Following a lengthy cancer battle Beverly Hills 90210 actress Shannen Doherty passed away earlier this week and requested her ashes be mixed with her beloved dog and late father.
The actress was a big part of many people’s childhood as Brenda Walsh in the massive nineties TV show – apart from the clueless Gen Z participants of a survey we revealed on Monday showed they know so little about the decade they thought Britpop was a fizzy drink!
Here we reveal all about tragic nineties screen stars…
READ MORE: Beverly Hills 90210 cast curse – from financial hardship to devastating deaths
READ MORE: Shannen Doherty’s ‘tragic’ final Instagram post as 90210 star dies from cancer
Brandon Lee
(Image: The Crow)
Son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, the 28-year-old lost his life in 1993 on the set of The Crow – the adaptation of James O’Barr’s 1989 comic book series about a rock star who returns from the dead to take revenge on the gang who murdered him and his fiancée.
Three days before filming was due to end a prop gun fired at him containing a blank bullet struck Brandon in the abdomen with the same force as a live round due to an obstruction in the barrel which went unchecked and killed him.
Shannen Doherty
(Image: Getty Images for Hallmark Channel)
After being diagnosed with breast cancer which had spread to her lymph nodes in 2015, Shannen had invasive treatment and announced two years later she was in remission.
Then in 2020 she revealed the cancer had returned the year previously. It spread to her brain three years on and the star told fans it was terminal.
In 2023 she revealed the cancer had reached her bones before passing away at 53 at home in Malibu, California on July 13. The actress had been married three times and in 2018 suffered another blow when her house was destroyed in the Woolsey wildfire which spread in Los Angeles.
Natasha Richardson
(Image: FilmMagic)
Her nineties screen successes including Nell with husband Liam Neeson and The Parent Trap with Dennis Quaid but Natasha’s life was cut short when on a skiing holiday in Quebec.
The actress was taking a beginner’s lesson when she suffered a head injury, refusing any help at the time. A severe headache began brewing a few hours later and she was flown to a hospital in New York but two days later sadly passed away.
Brittany Murphy
(Image: WireImage)
Shooting to fame in one of the biggest chick-flicks of the decade, Clueless sent Brittany’s profile skyrocketing – and she followed that with further nineties movie hits Girl, Interrupted and Drop Dead Gorgeous. In 2009 at the age of 32 she collapsed in the bathroom of her LA home.
The star died from pneumonia exacerbated by anaemia and multiple drug intoxication – her system was found to be full of legal treatments to battle a cold or respiratory infection.
Less than a year later her husband Simon Monjack died also of pneumonia and extreme anaemia leading Brittany’s parents to launch legal battles against the builders of the property, which were dismissed.
Heath Ledger
(Image: WireImage)
Breaking through with teen flick 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999 – based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew – Heath became an instant pin-up, whose acting talents went on to shine in more serious roles in the next decade including Brokeback Mountain before his death during the making of The Dark Knight in 2008.
The star was battling the torment of playing The Joker and struggling with insomnia when he suffered an accidental overdose of prescription drugs aged 28 at his New York apartment.
Dustin Diamond
(Image: Getty Images)
High school sitcom Saved By The Bell propelled Dustin to nineties telly superstar, playing Samuel “Screech” Powers.
But as his star began to fade he was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2001 and served time in prison for carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct when a bloke was stabbed in a Wisconsin bar on December 26, 2014. He died in 2021 from lung cancer.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
