CARRIE FISHER DIES
Carrie Fisher, known to the world as Princess Leia of “Star Wars,” died Tuesday at 60, four days after falling ill aboard an airline flight.
LOS ANGELES — Carrie Fisher, a daughter of Hollywood royalty who gained pop-culture fame as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” and turned her struggles with addiction and mental illness into wickedly funny books, a hit film and a one-woman stage show, died Tuesday after falling ill aboard a flight last week. She was 60.
“Carrie was one of a kind ... brilliant, original. Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely,” “Star Wars” co-star Harrison Ford said in a statement.
Fisher, the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, had been hospitalized since Friday, when paramedics responded to a report of a patient in distress at Los Angeles airport. Her family gave no details on the emergency, but media reports said she had suffered a heart attack.
“Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter,” Reynolds wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday. “I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop. Love Carries Mother.”
Fisher made her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit “Shampoo.” She also appeared in “Austin Powers,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Scream 3” and “When Harry Met Sally ...”
But Fisher is best remembered as the headstrong Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” in 1977, her hair styled in futuristic braided buns. She uttered the immortal phrase “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”
She reprised the role in Episode VII of the series, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in 2015, and her digitally rendered image appears in the newest installment, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”