Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry were more than just costars — they were friends for decades.
The two starred in the 90s television drama Beverly Hills, 90210 as love interests Brenda and Dylan, and they remained close until Perry’s death at age 52 in March 2019 following a stroke.
Doherty died Saturday, July 13, her longtime publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed the next day in a statement to PEOPLE, noting that Doherty “lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease.”
Several of Doherty’s fans and loved ones brought up the closeness between Doherty and Perry after her death. Gabrielle Carteris, 63, who played Andrea in the series, wrote in her tribute, “I know Luke is there with open arms to love you.”
While appearing on a panel at MegaCon Orlando in February, Doherty grew visibly emotional when she recalled learning of Perry’s death.
“It was shocking,” said the Charmed actress. “I have a very visceral reaction whenever someone brings up Luke because as someone with cancer — and a really horrible cancer at stage 4 — I thought I would be the first to go. So when it was Luke, it really just sent me for a tailspin.”
In a 2019 interview, Doherty called Perry a “smart, quiet, humble and complex man with a heart of gold and never-ending well of integrity and love.” She said they reconnected during her cancer journey and “picked right back up, albeit older and wiser, but that connection remained in tact.”
Prior to Perry’s death, the two were hoping to work together again on “something special and meaningful” for fans.
“There is a special kind of love one has for each other when you are experiencing the journey we did on 90210 and of course life in general,” Doherty said. “Luke and I were working on show ideas for us. We wanted to work with each other again and create something special and meaningful for our fans at this stage in our lives.”
“I will miss him everyday. Every minute. Every second.”
In the same interview, she also revealed that they had “met up for lunch” a few weeks before his death.
“I walked in and there he was, smiling, with his dog Penny and her bed under the booth, happy as can be,” she recalled. “I will never forget — and will miss — Luke looking at me with that smile of his saying … Shan.”
Perry, meanwhile, spoke of Doherty at a 90210panel at RewindCon Chicago in 2019, during which he said, “None of us are up here today without Shannen.”
“The reality is that she was a very big part of the success of the program,” he told convention attendees.
“She taught me a lot and I’m just really glad she was there for me as a scene partner,” he continued. “Any of the issues or anything that anyone ever talked about Shannen, the one thing I could always tell them was when she was on the mark and we were doing our work, there were no problems. She was great at what she did.”
After Perry died, Doherty made a cameo on his show Riverdale and shared on Instagram that she felt “deeply honored to pay tribute to Luke” on the CW hit series.
“The care in which this show takes in honoring his memory is beautiful,” she wrote in the caption while posting two photos of herself with the actor. “He is missed. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.”
Doherty, whose character was written off 90210 in 1994 after rumored disturbances and interruptions on set, said in the March 11 episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear that she was “horrified” by the “love triangle plot line” involving her and Perry’s character and Jennie Garth’s Kelly.
“I was so not into that because I just thought Brenda and Dylan were the best things ever so I didn’t understand anyone wanting to mess up that storyline,” she said of her on-screen relationship with Perry.
