(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) With the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump dominating the news over the weekend, the actual passing of several iconic public figures—including a rare Hollywood Republican—got swept under the rug.
Actress @DohertyShannen lays down the law to Dems! “they should have no problem with the fact that I’m a Republican.” http://t.co/O3r3XkdQ7v
— GOP Celebrities (@gopcelebrities) November 23, 2014
After a prolonged struggle with cancer, actress Shannen Doherty passed away on Saturday at the age of 53, according to People.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty,” said Doherty’s publicist, Leslie Sloane.
“On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease,” Sloane continued. “The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie.”
Doherty received her initial diagnosis in March 2015, and reported that she went into remission in 2017.
However, the cancer returned in 2019. Doherty announced her stage 4 metastatic cancer diagnosis publicly in 2020.
Despite repeated attempts at surgery, the cancer spread to her bones and her brain.
Doherty worked throughout the entirety of her battle with the disease.
“People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age—‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not,” she said. “We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work and embrace life and keep moving forward.”
Doherty played several iconic rolls, such as Jenny Wilder on Little House on the Prairie; Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210; Prue Halliwell in Charmed; and even took a brief host position on Good Morning America.
Doherty’s career unfortunately suffered after she garnered a reputation for being “difficult” on the set of Charmed, where she co-stared with leftist radical Alyssa Milano before leaving after three seasons to be replaced by another outspoken leftist, Rose McGowan.
“It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of,” Milano told the New York Post on Sunday. “She was a talented actress, beloved by many and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”
McGowan also paid tribute in a heartwarming Instagram post calling her “a soft-hearted badass” and noting that their friendship transcended political differences.
“We laughed at dark forces who wanted us to hate each other, instead we chose love and respect,” she said.
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Actress Shelley Duvall, fitness guru Richard Simmons and talk-show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer also passed away recently.
For some, the overshadowing called to mind a similar historical footnote that, sadly, occurred during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Two renowned British authors—C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley—both passed on Nov. 22, 1963.
Lewis, the renowned religious scholar and author of the Chronicles of Narnia, died of renal failure in Oxford, England an hour before the shooting of JFK in Dallas, Texas.
Huxley, best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World, was also a famous early advocate and pioneer in the experimentation of LSD. He died of oral cancer in Los Angeles.
