Shannen Doherty Definitely Wasn't a Nepo Baby — Her Parents Had Delightfully Normal Jobs

Beverly Hills 90210 actor Shannen Doherty has died at the age of 53 after battling cancer for several years. Shannen was very outspoken about her health issues over the past few years and was determined to continue working as much as possible despite the challenges that she faced.

In light of the sad news about Shannen's death, some fans have taken to looking for information about her personal life, including details about her parents. Here's what we know about them.

Shannen Doherty's parents were John Thomas Doherty Jr. and Rosa Doherty.

The entertainment world is filled with plenty of nepo babies, but Shannen's parents were delightfully normal people with regular day jobs. Her father, John, worked at a bank , and her mother owned a beauty parlor. In 1978, when Shannen was 7 years old, the family moved to Los Angeles so that her father could start a west coast branch of the family transportation business.

It was just a few years later that Shannen would begin her career in entertainment. Her first big role was on the series Father Murphy when Shannen was 10 years old.

Her parents didn't have a lot of time in the spotlight, but they were there to support her throughout her career. John even came to cheer her on when Shannen competed on Dancing With the Stars .

A scroll through Shannen's Instagram account shows that she also spent a lot of time with her mother, Rosa.

Shannen's father also dealt with difficult health issues before his death in 2010.

Shannen spoke about how difficult it was seeing her father struggled with his health on her podcast, Let's Be Clear With Shannen Doherty . On Father's Day in 2024, she shared that his own health battles may have influenced the type of men she sought out for relationships.

“I think watching him go in and out of the hospital and the fear that I constantly felt of, is this going to be the last time I see him? Is he going to die? Is he not going to come out of the hospital?” she said.

“But it wasn't like he was doing that to me. It was more that I was projecting that onto myself because I was so scared that the most important man in my life was not going to be there, that there was parts of me that sort of shut down as I got older. And I think I definitely, we've discussed this before, you guys, where I chose men that were not like my dad, that were not that kind and that gracious and that great.”