Beverly Hills 90210 Cast Then And Now

2 years ago

Kelly Taylor - THEN

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Kelly was a spoiled teen vixen, the role gradually being expanded by the producers. Miss Taylor was instrumental in launching the first spin off where she overcame several challenges and attracted many romantic suitors. We see her character develop from youth into adulthood.

Jennie Garth - NOW

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Jennie Garth has done lots of TV work since her 90210 days. She was in the sitcoms "What I like About You" and "Mystery Girls." Garth, who has three daughters, split from her first husband, Peter Facinelli and following her divorce, remarried new hubby Dave Abrams in 2015.

Donna Martin - THEN

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Right through high school, Donna Martin bonded with seven friends who she would mix with, well into her adult life. This included her eventual love interest, David Silver. Donna made it clear that it was her intention to stay a virgin for the foreseeable future.

Tori Spelling - NOW

Image source: Us Weekly

Tori Spelling is a fan of reality shows, starring in "So Notorious" and Tori & Dean: In Love." She was also in a vampire movie in 2016. Tori (daughter of Aaron Spelling) is mom to five children who she shares with her husband, Dean McDermott. They married in 2006, after 3 years of dating.

Brenda Walsh - THEN

Image source: IMDb

Brenda had just moved to Beverly Hills and found difficulty in fitting in and making new friends. She fantasizes about the big changes in her life, alluding to the idea that she wasn't popular at her old school and tries to impress Kelly Taylor. Brenda is desperate to be liked and to find herself a boyfriend.

Shannen Doherty - NOW

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Shannen Doherty wasted no time after playing Brandon's fierce twin sister, Brenda Walsh. She landed an iconic role in "Charmed" and the movies "Heathers" and "Mallrats." Shannen has been open about her stage 4 cancer diagnosis and, fortunately, has been in remission since 2017. She married for the third time in 2017.

Brandon Walsh - THEN

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Brandon was best known for his strong moral values, unlike his close friend Dylan McKay. He was friendly and unselfish, making him popular with everyone he came into contact with, so much so that they all remarked that he was the best friend they had ever had.

Jason Priestley - NOW

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Call Me Fitz" and "Private Eyes." Father of two, Jason has been married since 2005 to his wife Naomi Lowde. He has survived crashing head on into a wall during a car race in 2002 and being thrown from a horse in 2015, on the set of "The Code.

David Silver - THEN

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David starts out as an ambitious freshman. He is eager to create a name for himself at West Beverly, whether it be through his music or bagging himself the most popular girl at school. Once he sets eyes in Kelly Taylor, he becomes obsessed with her and totally infatuated.

Brian Austin Green- NOW

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Dancing With The Stars", "The Conners" and "Last The Night." Brian focussed more on his family life which included three sons with ex wife Megan Fox and son with ex Vanessa Marcil. He welcomed yet another son with his present girlfriend Sharna Burgess around a year ago.

Valerie Malone - THEN

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Valerie Malone is a cunning, smart and strong woman but she suffered sexual abuse by her father and she has great trouble trusting people. When she moves to Beverly Hills after her father dies, she tries to deal with her past, looking for comfort and security in her life.

Tiffani Thiessen - NOW

Image source: Getty ImagesTiffani Thiessen has busied herself with tv work including "White Collar", "Alexa & Katie" and a "Saved By The Bell" reboot. She is a culinary expert and was the host of the Cooking Channel's "Dinner at Tiffani's." She can now be seen as the host of MTV's comedy food related clip show called "Deliciousness."

Steve Sanders - THEN

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Steve is a rich and spoiled teenager, or so it appears. He struggles with the knowledge that he was adopted, he has a poor relationship with his critical father, Rush and a lack of understanding from his mother. Once Steve meets Brandon, he quickly takes to the Walsh family and builds up a friendship with Brandon.

Ian Ziering - NOW

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Ian Ziering decided to have a change, once he left 90120 and he worked as a Chippendale dancer! His co-stars from "Beverley Hills" paid him a visit at the risque show and absolutely loved it! Ian has been married twice, once to a Playboy bunny but is currently single.

Andrea Zuckerman - THEN

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Andrea was the intelligent but socially awkward editor of the school newspaper. Her storylines often dealt with gender, class, race and politics. Early on in the series Andrea was befriended by Brandon Walsh and he served as her entry point into the "Gang".

Gabrielle Carteris - NOW

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Gabrielle Carteris has done lots of voice acting for cartoons and video games. She stands up against ageism in Hollywood and wrote a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter where she called for ages to be removed from casting sites, for both sexes but especially for women. She's been married for 30 years and has two daughters.

Dylan McKay - THEN

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Dylan has a reputation for being a dangerous loner. After he stands up to some bullies for a freshman student, he makes friends with Brandon and the rest of the crowd. He eventually starts to date Brenda and the two of them fall in love, much to her father's dismay.

Luke Perry - NOW

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After his run as the bad boy heartthrob Dylan, Luke Perry returned to teen TV as Archie's dad, Fred Andrews in "Rivedale." Sadly the actor died at age 52 on March 4, 2019, 5 days after suffering a massive stroke. He was surrounded by his children and fiance, as well as close family members.

Clare Arnold - THEN

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Clare goes from being the spoiled, over eager rich girl to becoming an accomplished student throughout the show. It ended with her getting an offer to study at a prestigious graduate school in France. She pursued Brandon for much of the series and eventually had a fulfilling relationship with Steve.

Kathleen Robertson - NOW

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Kathleen Robertson had guest roles on a whole host of shows after her time on "Beverly Hills 90210," including "CSI: Miami" and "Medium." She played Kitty O'Neil in "The Boss" and starred in "Murder in the First" from 2014 to 2016. Kathleen currently stars in the Canadian drama "Northern Rescue."

Carly Reynolds - THEN

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Single mom, Carly Reynolds, gets involved with Steve Sanders over the course of one season of "90210." She works as a waitress in a Los Angeles restaurant but when her father dies, he leaves California with her son with a plan to return to her home state of Montana.

Hilary Swank - NOW

Image source: The Hollywood Reporter

Actress Hilary Swank has gone on to give numerous critically acclaimed performances, including the role of murdered transgender man Brandon Teena in 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" Hillary won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. She was also in the 2009 biographical movie "Amelia."

Noah Hunter - THEN

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Noah Hunter met the main characters of "Beverly Hills 90210" when they visited Hawaii which was in season 8. Noah set his sights on Donna and they went on to have a brief fling. Things were rocky, though, as he was an alcoholic. Luckily, he was persuaded to attended AA for his issues.

Vincent Young - NOW

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Vincent Young has kept his hand in when it comes to the movie world. He's had roles in films "Escape 2: Plan to Hades" and "3 Days Rising." Over the past few years he's appeared in "What Death Leaves Behind", "Eagles In The Chicken Coop" and "The 5th Boro" in 2019.

Janet Sosna - THEN

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Janet only became a main character during the final seasons of the show but she did have a very memorable storyline. It involved her love interest, Steve and their publication, the Beverly Beat, which she worked on as editor. Janet and Steve got married eventually and had a child together.

Lindsay Price - NOW

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After "Beverly Hills 90210," Lindsay Price had multiple episode runs on popular shows like "Lipstick Jungle," "Eastwick" and "Pepper Dennis." She recently starred in the comedy on ABC, "Splitting Up Together" which ran for a couple of seasons. Despite it's success, it was not recommissioned.

Matt Durning - THEN

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Matt is one of Kelly's love interests later on in the show and he competes with Dylan to get her attention and win her over. He's the legal expert with any problems that arise in the group, like when Valerie kills her father in self defence because her dad was sexually abusive towards her. The ending shows Matt breaking up with Kelly so that she can be with Dylan.

Daniel Cosgrove - NOW

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After "90210," the offers rolled in and Cosgrove appeared on a number of soap operas such "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns" and "Days of Our Lives." Daniel also guest starred in "The Good Wife" and "Dirty Sexy Money." More recently, he played Ron on Netflix's crime drama "You."

Gina Kinkaid - THEN

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Gina is a former ice-skating champion and becomes Kelly's antagonist after Valerie leaves the show. She gets involved with Dylan and they embark on a relationship together. Hardly any of the characters like her until the end of the show when they have a change of heart.

Vanessa Marcil - NOW

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Vanessa Marcil has appeared on numerous television programs after 901020 ended. She starred on the NBC drama "Las Vegas" from 2003 to 2008 and was on the shows "NYPD Blue" and "Lipstick Jungle." Marcil has also starred on Lifetime Original movies "The Wrong Mother" and "Bad Tutor."

Emily Valentine - THEN

image source: 90210.fandom.com

Emily Valentine was a troubled young teen on the show, and one of her most famous storylines was dating both Dylan and Brandon at the same time (drama drama). She eventually chose Brandon, but was also busy destroying a homecoming float by setting it on fire.

Christine McCarthy - NOW

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Christine McCarthy, who is now better known as Christine Elise, actually dated Brandon actor Jason Priestly off-screen for five years - according to the guy's memoir, anyway. Christine went on to continue acting roles, starring in E.R and most recently the TV series Chucky.

Think You Know Everything About 90210? Think Again! Ian Ziering Almost Didn't Star Because He Thought It Was 'Superficial'

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Ian Ziering, who played Steve Sanders on the show, almost didn't give it a chance. Of course, we know the show was about a bunch of rich kids who were more than a little entitled, but we also know it had some deeper storylines. Initial, Ziering thought it was too superficial.

Shannen Doherty's Audition Was Pretty Bad!

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Shannen played Brenda Walsh, one of the main stars of the show - so it may be surprising that such a big player actually had an awful audition! According to the actress, the audition was really horrible and she came out convinced that she'd blew it... well, obviously not.

Tori Spelling's Father Tried To Control Her Storylines

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Aaron Spelling was a film and TV producer, actress Tori Spelling's father - and also a producer for 90210 itself! So he got pretty involved when it came to the storyline's of his daughter's character, and even though Donna wasn't a main character, Aaron was always asking about her storyline first!

Beverly Hills High Didn't Want To Be Associated With The Show

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West Beverly High from the show is a fictional school, of course, but they needed a very real location to shoot on. Beverly Hills High was the obvious choice - put apparently they didn't want anything to do with the filming, and the show ended up using Torrance High School.

Dylan McKay Was Never Really Supposed To Be A Long-Term Character

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Luke Perry was one of the biggest heartthrobs of the show - and that era - and his name is still a well-known one to this day. So you might have thought he was supposed to have a huge role from the very beginning due to his status, but he was only supposed to be a guest star. The producers loved his performance so much they give him a bigger role!

There Was A LOT Of Drama Between The Main Cast Members

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It's always interesting to hear if actors got on behind the scenes, and apparently the 90210 cast had their fair share of fallouts. One cast member said it was worse than high school off screen! And also the subject of salary was a big source of argument, apparently... well, you can't blame them.

Tiffani Thiessen Needed A Hand Double

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When Tiffani joined the cast to play Valerie, she quickly became a fan favorite - but she actually needed a hand double in her very first episode! Fans of the show will know the first time we see her character she's rolling a certain something, but the actress herself couldn't do it properly - so they had to have someone else's hand to roll it!

Hilary Swank Was Actually Fired

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You might not believe that Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank could be fired from anything! She was originally in a contract for 2 years on the show, but ended up being fired after only 16 episodes. It's not known why she was fired, but she was apparently devastated!

The Cast Members Weren't Allowed To Cut Their Hair

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Sometimes actors have to do certain things for the sake of their roles, like lose a few pounds - or put a few pounds on - and apparently the cast members weren't allowed to cut or change their hairstyles at all, because Aaron Spelling would get antsy about it! They also weren't allowed to wear sunglasses.

Jason Priestley Only Had 2 Days To Prepare

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When Jason Priestly was cast, he was actually the last actor to join the show! He got a call on the Friday afternoon that he'd got the role, and he only had until Monday before they started shooting! That must have been a pretty overwhelming weekend for him to learn his lines...

The Casting Directors Apparently Didn't Know Tori Was Aaron's Daughter

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This situation is a bit iffy depending on who says what, but the casting directors themselves have claimed they didn't know who producer of the show Aaron Spelling was, and that they didn't know Tori was his daughter when she was cast. She said herself she auditioned under a different name... but her dad might have helped her get the part, who knows.

The Walsh Family Don't Live In Beverly Hills

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The Walsh family's home isn't actually located in Beverly Hills... when exterior shots were used for the location, it was actually a house in Altadena, California! It's not too far away from Beverly Hills - about 30 miles - but still. The house is actually still standing in real life, and you can visit it!

John Hughes Was A HUGE Influence On The Show

image source: IMDb.com

Legendary director John Hughes and his own TV show Thirtysomething was actually a huge inspiration for the show - and for Aaron Spelling. He really loved the show - and of course John Hughes was famous for his coming of age movies centered around teenagers, so it's no surprise!

It Wasn't Actually An Instant Success

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The show wasn't exactly a failure at first, but it wasn't a roaring success - the ratings were just okay. It was two key changes that were made that actually turned it into a bigger hit: the 'Brenda losing her virginity to Dylan' storyline and a switch from winter to summer airing instead!

There Was Once A Bomb Threat During Filming

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Unfortunately, the bigger success it had, the more attention it attracted - and that included threats of terrorism. The famous graduation scene, which had tons of people on set including extras, was when a bomb was called in, hidden underneath the bleachers! Luckily they found it.

There Were Loads Of Name Changes For The Characters

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There are a few confusing name changes on the show, and usually it's to do with the Morgans/Martins. Donna Morgan is introduced with this name, but later is Donna Martin. Donna's mother was first called Nancy, but then called Felice for the rest of the show! Confusing to say the least.

Tiffani Thiessen And Brian Austen Green Were Actually Dating When The Show Started

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Actress Tiffani Thiessen was already in a relationship when she started filming for the show - and her boyfriend was actually Brian Austen Green, who was playing David Silver! This apparently made it a little awkward on set - all actors know they might have to kiss other actors, but it's a bit different when you're right there on set with them...

Ian Ziering Trashed His Dressing Room

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Ian Ziering's dressing room got on the wrong side of his annoyance when he made his feelings known about a particular rape accusation storyline. He was struggling so much for what his character was going through, he had a sort of breakdown while filming and gave his all for the performance - only to later learn they edited a lot of stuff he'd filmed. So he trashed his dressing room.