Brenda Walsh

For much of her life, Shannon Doherty had the strange experience of watching the world decide who she was before she'd even finished working it out for herself.

To millions of viewers, she was Brenda Walsh, the dark-haired outsider who became one of the defining characters of Beverly Hills 90210.

Later, she would find a whole new generation of fans as Prue Halliwell, the fiercely protective eldest sister in Charmed.

But behind the scenes, a very different story was unfolding.

Casting directors noticed her superb acting range quickly, and that quality would prove to become extremely important the following year, when producers were assembling a new television series for the Fox network.

The idea was simple enough, follow a group of affluent teenagers living in Beverly Hills in California.

At the centre would be twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh, newcomers from Minnesota whose relatively ordinary midwestern family would provide the audience with a way into the wealthy, image-conscious world around them.

Jason Priestley was cast as Brandon, Shannon Doherty became Brenda.

That's.

That's Brenda Walsh played by the late Shannon Doherty, the late Luke Perry as Dylan McKay.

Yeah, that's when she's auditioning for, I think it's Cat in the Hot Tin Roof,

right? Well, yeah, they're talking about, so in the scene before she, the different girl meets the director, they are talking about auditioning for Cat in the Hot Tin Roof.

One of them is when they're in college.

One of the ones I sent, and Brenda, Brenda Walsh, played by the late Shannon Doherty.

Brenda, who wants to be an actress now in college.

Art imitating life, imitating art, because she is an actress.

She's trying out for the college play at the fictional CU, California University, but it doesn't exist.

Long story for another day.

Can't wait to watch it.

But Brenda tries out for the lead in the university play.