In a photograph from a 1993 profile in Vanity Fair, the actress Shannen Doherty lounged in a puddle of Borzoi, a cigarette between her lips.

The image was widely circulated on social media after Ms. Doherty died of cancer on Saturday at 53. It seemed to capture much of what fans will miss about the actress: her easy glamour, her reputation for defiance, her grit.

“She was perfect,” the writer Maris Kreizman wrote alongside the photograph in a post on X.

Throughout the weekend, celebrities and fans shared tributes to Ms. Doherty, a mainstay of 1990s television who played strong-willed characters on “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed.” Many said the actress possessed a similar resolve.

“Shannen Doherty had the heart of a lion,” the actress Rose McGowan, who replaced Ms. Doherty in the fourth season of “Charmed,” wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “Passion for craft is often mislabeled as trouble. Shannen was passion.”

Tori Spelling, who acted alongside Ms. Doherty on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” a glossy soap opera about life in one of the most exclusive ZIP codes in America, said on Instagram that she would remember the actress’s determination and her sardonic sense of humor. “She was a rebel in an era when most women didn’t feel comfortable being strong,” she wrote.

Some “90210” castmates also addressed rumors of infighting, which fueled a reputation for prickliness that followed Ms. Doherty throughout much of her career. (The first two words of that Vanity Fair profile? “She’s difficult.”)