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      Shannen Doherty, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ and ‘Charmed’ Star, Dies at 53

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      Shannen Doherty, the raven-haired actress known for playing headstrong characters in the 1990s television dramas “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed,” and who had tried in recent years to shed her rebellious reputation, died on Saturday at her home in Malibu, Calif. She was 53.The cause was cancer, her publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in an emailed statement.Ms. Doherty learned she had breast cancer in February 2015 and had been open about her struggle with it in the years since. In the summer of 2016, she shaved her head as a group of friends stood by, and in 2017, she announced that the cancer was in remission. It returned in 2020, and in June 2023 Ms. Doherty announced that the cancer had spread to her brain. In November, she said it had spread to her bones.But she continued to work and started a podcast that month.“I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better,” she told People magazine. “I’m not done.”Doherty in 1996. “I have felt misunderstood my whole life,” she told People that year.Gary Null/NBCShannen Maria Doherty was born on April 12, 1971, in Memphis to John Doherty Jr., a mortgage consultant, and Rosa (Wright) Doherty, a beautician. By age 10, Shannen had established herself as a child actress, appearing as Jenny Wilder in 18 episodes of “Little House on the Prairie” and acting alongside Wilford Brimley and Deidre Hall in the NBC drama “Our House.”Those were quickly overshadowed by her performance as the acid-tongued, red-scrunchy-wearing Heather Duke in the 1988 movie “Heathers,” a campy comedy-thriller that starred Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Ms. Doherty as students who fight for lunchroom domination as the body count begins to rise.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Shannen Doherty Films and TV Shows: How to Watch Her Most Notable Work

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      The actress, who died on Saturday, was best known for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” but she wasn’t only a teen idol.Shannen Doherty died Saturday, at 53, after a long battle with cancer. She left behind a legacy as a touchstone of 1990s television thanks to her role as the Midwestern new girl Brenda Walsh in “Beverly Hills, 90210.” But before she became a teen TV idol — as well as a tabloid fixation — she warmed hearts as a child in “Little House on the Prairie.”Here’s where to stream some of Doherty’s most notable work, including, of course, “Beverly Hills, 90210.”‘Little House on the Prairie’Years before Doherty began shaking things up at West Beverly Hills High School, she did so in “Little House on the Prairie.” Doherty joined the long-running series as Jenny Wilder, the niece of Melissa Gilbert’s Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, played by Dean Butler. Doherty appeared as Jenny, a pigtail-wearing girl whose father dies, throughout the ninth and final season of the show, and in subsequent “Little House” TV movies.Stream it on Peacock.‘Heathers’The first sign of Doherty’s star power came with the release of “Heathers,” the pitch-black comedy directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Daniel Waters. Doherty plays Heather Duke, a member of the title clique of mean girls who terrorize their high school and all share the same name. (Well, except for the protagonist, Veronica Sawyer, played by Winona Ryder.) When the lead Heather, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), is murdered by a new kid in school, J.D. (Christian Slater) — a death that is passed off as a suicide with help from Veronica —Doherty’s Heather sees a path to power. She claims her dead friend’s red scrunchie as her crown, but her status obsession also makes her an easy target for J.D.’s manipulations.Stream it on Tubi, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video.Doherty with Winona Ryder in “Heathers.”New World, via Everett Collection‘Beverly Hills, 90210’Doherty remained best known for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the influential teen series that debuted on Fox in 1990, created by Darren Star and executive produced by Aaron Spelling. Doherty played Brenda Walsh, a Beverly Hills newcomer who arrives with her twin brother, Brandon (Jason Priestley). Doherty told The New York Times in 2008: “Whereas her brother would feel a little more confident and secure, and just fit in automatically, I think for Brenda there was always a little more of, ‘Is this the place for me?’ I think she probably struggled through that, subconsciously, throughout the show.” Brenda’s relationship with the cool guy Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) was one of TV’s defining romances of the 1990s. Doherty left “90210” after four seasons, but would later reprise her role in the 2000s reboot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Shannen Doherty’s ‘Let’s Be Clear’ Podcast Put It All Out There

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      Over the past eight months, the “90210” and “Charmed” star spoke frankly and candidly about her cancer and her tumultuous career.It did not take long for Shannen Doherty to establish that hers was a different sort of celebrity podcast.Doherty began recording episodes of “Let’s Be Clear” from her home in November 2023, as she received treatment for a recurrence of breast cancer. As the podcast’s title suggests, the assertive star of “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Heathers,” “Mall Rats” and “Charmed” — as famed for her acting as for reports of her on-set infighting and partying — reckoned with her life and career with a candor that distinguished her project amid a glut of often aimless celebrity podcasts.Doherty was similarly confrontational as she wrestled with her own mortality — not in the abstract, but in wrenching specifics. She matter-of-factly recounted getting rid of her collection of antique furniture so her mother wouldn’t be faced with clearing out a storage unit after her death. On another episode, Doherty described selling off a property in Tennessee and choked up over what the decision meant.“I felt like I was giving up on a dream and what did that mean for me?” she asked rhetorically before taking a deep breath. “Did it mean that I was giving up on life? Did it mean that I was, like, throwing in the towel?”Doherty, who died Saturday at 53, didn’t do rewatches or share cute behind-the-scenes stories. Neither did she make oblique references to unnamed power brokers. Doherty faced the past and present head on, hosting former co-stars, directors, an ex-boyfriend and an ex-husband in conversations that sometimes exonerated her and that other times offered her the chance to assume culpability.In one of the earliest episodes, Doherty dived deep into the dispute with her former “Charmed” co-star Alyssa Milano that led to Doherty’s departure after the third season of the show, which was reported at the time as a voluntary decision.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Richard Simmons, Exercise and Fitness Personality, Dies at 76

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      With his exuberant can-do spirit, Mr. Simmons appealed to a wide following to get moving with exercise videos like “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.”Richard Simmons, who for years was the face of home fitness through his wildly popular videos and energetic personality, died on Saturday morning in Los Angeles. He was 76.A representative for Mr. Simmons, Tom Estey, confirmed Mr. Simmons’s death.The Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Police Department responded to an address linked to Mr. Simmons at 10 a.m. on Saturday. A Fire Department spokesman said personnel at the scene determined he died of natural causes.At his Beverly Hills exercise studio, Slimmons, and in his videos and DVDs, Mr. Simmons exuded an enthusiastic can-do spirit to inspire people of all ages and fitness levels to get moving.Mr. Simmons stretched and jumped in contrast to other fitness gurus of the 1980s, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, who exuded movie-star looks and charm.Mr. Simmons’s approach was perhaps more noticeable, and relatable, than his counterparts as he spoke directly to audiences in his aerobics videos.One video features him clapping and singing in unison with students as they entered his studio.“You’re actually inside my real exercise studio, ‘Slimmons,’ and these are my honest-to-goodness teachers,” he said, looking to the group around him.In 2017, Mr. Simmons was the subject of a popular podcast, “Missing Richard Simmons,” which became a cultural phenomenon.In March, Mr. Simmons said he had been treated for basal cell carcinoma, which he said first appeared as a “strange looking bump” under his eye.This is a developing story. More

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      Ruth Westheimer, the Sex Therapist Known as Dr. Ruth, Dies at 96

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      Frank and funny, the taboo-breaking psychologist said things on television and radio that would have been shocking coming from almost anyone else.Ruth Westheimer, the grandmotherly psychologist who as “Dr. Ruth” became America’s best-known sex counselor with her frank, funny radio and television programs, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 96. Her death was announced by a spokesman, Pierre Lehu.Dr. Westheimer was in her 50s when she first went on the air in 1980, answering listeners’ mailed-in questions about sex and relationships on the radio station WYNY in New York. The show, called “Sexually Speaking,” was only a 15-minute segment heard after midnight on Sundays. But it was such a hit that she quickly became a national media celebrity and a one-woman business conglomerate.At her most popular, in the 1980s, she had syndicated live call-in shows on radio and television, wrote a column for Playgirl magazine, lent her name to a board game and its computer version, and began rolling out guidebooks on sexuality that covered the field from educating the young to recharging the old. College students loved her; campus speaking appearances alone brought in a substantial income. She appeared in ads for cars, soft drinks, shampoo, typewriters and condoms.She even landed a role in the 1985 French film “One Woman or Two,” starring Gérard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver and released in the United States in 1987. (“Dr. Ruth will never be mistaken for an actress,” Janet Maslin wrote in her New York Times review, “but she does have pep.”)Dr. Westheimer with Gérard Depardieu, left, and Michel Aumont in the 1985 movie “One Woman or Two.” “Dr. Ruth will never be mistaken for an actress,” one critic wrote of her performance, “but she does have pep.”Moune Jamet/Orion Pictures Corp., via Everett CollectionThese days, some effort may be needed to recall that Ruth Westheimer had a radical formula and considerable influence on social mores. Talk shows abounded in the 1980s, but until she came along none had dealt so exclusively and clinically with sex. Nor could anyone have anticipated that the messenger of Eros would be a 4-foot-7 middle-aged teacher with a delivery that The Wall Street Journal described as “something like a cross between Henry Kissinger and a canary.” We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hidetoshi Nishijima Was ‘Overwhelmed’ by This Filmmaker’s Work

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      After seeing “Husbands” and “Minnie and Moskowitz,” the actor from “Drive My Car” and the new Apple TV+ series “Sunny” said, “I couldn’t go home. I just kept bicycling around.”The morning after “Drive My Car” won an Oscar for best international feature, its lead actor Hidetoshi Nishijima was already planning his next project.Nishijima, 53, met with the director and screenwriter of the upcoming Apple TV+ show “Sunny” and is now one of its stars.In “Sunny,” which began streaming this month, Nishijima plays Masa, an employee at a secretive robotics company in Japan as well as the husband to Suzie Sakamoto, an American expatriate played by Rashida Jones. When Masa and their son go missing, Suzie embarks on a quest to find out more about the company and the husband she thought she knew.“In this show, there’s trust and betrayal,” Nishijima said in a video interview from Tokyo, where he lives with his family. “There’s technology that has a good side and a dangerous side. This show really explores how as a human sometimes you don’t even know who you are.”He discussed the way he brings a bit of nature to his home, the thing he and his “Drive My Car” character have in common and the filmmaking book he keeps coming back to. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Movie TheatersWhen I was in my 20s and 30s, I wasn’t really working. I was an actor, but I wasn’t working. So I was going to the movies every day. In Tokyo, we could watch every movie in the world. I would watch two or three movies a day. Looking back, I treasure those moments. I was still doing something productive, and I feel like that kind of saved me in a sense. It helped me keep my sanity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Judy Belushi Pisano, Who Defended Her Husband’s Legacy, Dies at 73

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      She was married to John Belushi until his fatal drug overdose in 1982. She went on to celebrate his comic talent in books and a documentary.Judy Belushi Pisano, who after the death of her husband, the actor and comedian John Belushi, from a drug overdose in 1982 became a fierce defender of his legacy, died on July 5 at her home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. She was 73.Her son, Luke Pisano, said the cause was endometrial cancer.Mr. Belushi, a member of the original cast of “Saturday Night Live” and a star of hit films like “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers,” was among the best-known comic actors in the world when he was found dead in a Hollywood hotel.Though it took weeks to determine the cause — from a mix of heroin and cocaine — the public immediately seized on Mr. Belushi’s death as a cautionary tale of excess in an era defined by it.His reputation as a hard-partying drug addict was further underlined by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post in his book “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi” (1984), which Ms. Pisano had initially authorized but later came to regret.“The book is both unfair and inaccurate,” she told The Philadelphia Daily News in 1984. “To me the biggest lie is that it claims to be a portrait of John but it’s not. It’s only about drugs.”Ms. Pisano at the 2004 ceremony posthumously honoring John Belushi with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Vince Bucci/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden’s News Conference Answered Many Questions. But Not the Big One.

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      For once, a presidential Q. and A. was must-see TV. But it didn’t put an end to the summer’s biggest drama.Follow the latest Biden news and election updates.There were many questions at President Biden’s nearly hourlong news conference on Thursday night — questions about Gaza, Ukraine, the campaign, his health, his record.But at its heart there was only one question: Could he do it?That is, could Mr. Biden, who stunned viewers and his party and George Clooney with a doddering performance at the first presidential debate two weeks ago, stand and deliver? Could he be coherent? Could he dispel the talk of age and frailty and decline? Could he beat the doubters who want him to step down from the ticket? Could he look like a winner?On a national TV stage, Mr. Biden answered the individual questions, often comfortably, sometimes defensively, with depth and engagement and flashes of passion. As for the uber-question, the answer was incomplete. He was not the uncomfortable, lost presence of the debate, but he didn’t erase the memory of that version of himself either. He came across as the president he wants to be, but not necessarily the candidate his critics have said he needs to be.Presidential news conferences are rarely must-see TV. But the stakes — heightened by reports that some Democrats were waiting for it before weighing in on whether Mr. Biden should remain the nominee — gave this one the air of a test, if not a last stand.The telecast had the daredevil feel of a live walk through a minefield. The first false step came before the news conference proper, at remarks after the afternoon’s NATO meeting, when Mr. Biden introduced President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine: “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.”The president caught himself and recovered. “I’m better,” Mr. Zelensky joked; “You’re a hell of a lot better,” Mr. Biden said. The audience laughed. Anybody can mix up a name once.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More