Shannen Doherty Dies: Reflecting on Her Bond with Luke Perry

A few years ago, on this very website, I wrote a story about the monumental impact Luke Perry’s death had on Generation X. 

Like many people who were teens in the ‘90s, I can’t help but think back to his death at the age of 52 in 2019 now that Shannen Doherty has died at the age of 53 after a long struggle with breast cancer.

The duo had an inextricable bond that helped define the decade: Perry, who played brooding bad boy Dylan on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and Doherty, who played his love interest, the feisty yet vulnerable Brenda.

As far as TV couples from the ‘90s go, they are up there with Ross and Rachel from “Friends” when it comes to cultural impact. While “Friends” focused on the lives of single people in their 20s, “90210” — which premiered nearly a full four years before “Friends” — reached teenagers when it premiered, giving them a voice.

“Brenda and Dylan represent the sanctity of first love before any mistakes — or any change at all, including growth — can mar it,” Margaret Wappler wrote in her 2024 book, “A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up.”

There’s a certain cruel irony in the fact that the actors who played Brenda and Dylan are both gone now. Their chemistry was impeccable, their characters’ troubled romance a heartbeat of a generation. Wrapping your head around the fact that they both died in their 50s is difficult, for sure. It’s cliché, but true, to say they represented youth, only to die young.

Brenda and Dylan captured the wonder of young love, the good and the bad. It spoke to audiences in a way that shows until that point hadn’t — the spring dance episode in the first season when they first have sex and a Season 2 episode when their rendezvous leads to a pregnancy scare was progressive television at that point in time.

“Brenda and Dylan” became code for something all teenagers tried to understand or experience: romance and the cavalcade of emotions that come along with it.

As in real life, when relationships fade after we leave high school, Doherty and Perry lost touch following “90210.” Doherty said they didn’t remain tight.

“But later we became extremely close,” she said in February at MegaCon Orlando, according to People. “So to lose him as our relationship was just sort of flourishing as friends, and our respect and admiration for each other was coming to its fullest potential … it was just very hard.”

If Perry’s death showed the frailty of life and emphasized that the very people who grew up watching “90210” had indeed reached a new era in their own lives, what can we make of Doherty’s passing? She also died young, the victim of breast cancer. “90210” fans will no doubt remember Doherty’s Brenda dealing with her own breast cancer scare in the show’s first season.

“Beverly Hills, 90210” was revolutionary for its depiction of teenagers. The show addressed heavy subject matters, such as alcoholism, sex, AIDS, drug use, date rape and teenage pregnancy. It never preached or pandered to its fans, but lessons were learned. In a strange way, the show has continued to teach.

Doherty’s death further reminds us that life isn’t fair. We’re gliding into our 50s now and odds are we’ve all learned in our own way these last few decades that life can indeed test us.

There is an idealism of youth that often falls by the wayside to the wisdom of experience and age. We won’t get that job. Our kids may frustrate us. Bonds with people we loved as youngsters break. Life doesn’t always come full circle. It can be hard to put a bow on things and get closure, the way a TV show wraps things up nice and neat within its running time.

Perry and Doherty, though, did kind of reunite and tie up loose ends. Perry died while starring on “Riverdale,” playing the father of Archie Andrews. His death was written into the show and the first episode of the show’s fourth season in 2019 paid tribute to him when viewers learned he died in a hit-and-run helping a woman whose car had broken down.

Doherty played the woman he helped and she cried when explaining what happened. It is a searing scene and speaks to the powerful connection they forged with each other and with their fans. A spark from an old flame burned bright one more time.

“90210” was a representation of the promise and angst those of us growing up in the ‘90s all possessed. During the pandemic, I watched the show a lot. The show served as a sort of soundtrack, providing comfort in uncomfortable times. But there is no comfort in seeing what has happened to Perry and Doherty, who played star-crossed lovers, literally showing viewers years after they said goodbye to their characters the challenges of life, both beautiful and heartbreaking.