Hollywood’s ‘princess’ dies at 60

Los Angeles, Dec. 28: After decades of fast living that her fearless Star Wars character Princess Leia would have struggled to keep up with, Carrie Fisher died on Tuesday following a massive heart attack. She was 60.

The American actress, best-selling author and screenwriter — who suffered from numerous addictions she later turned into writing gold — was a member of Hollywood royalty, both on screen and off.

Born in Los Angeles in October 1956, the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher became an international star overnight with the release of Star Wars in 1977.

Leia was the tough rebel princess in a white dress with a strange hairdo and blaster guns, who was unafraid to stare down the villainous Darth Vader.

Six years later in of the Jedi, she became a sex symbol in a barely-there metal bikini — but remained the tough heroine, killing her slug-like gangster jailer Jabba the Hutt by choking him with the chain he used to hold her captive. The blockbuster space saga is now part of pop culture legend and a worldwide fan favorite.

The early 1980s were marked by problems with alcohol, drugs and depression for Fisher. She became known for her searingly honest semi-autobiographical writing, including her bestselling debut Postcards from the Edge, which she turned into a film of the same name in 1990.

She gave various interviews over the years about her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and addiction to prescription drugs and cocaine, which she admitted using on the set of The Empire Strikes Back.

Asked by Vanity Fair in 2006 how she persuaded Star Wars director George Lucas to give her the part of Princess Leia, she said: “I slept with some nerd. I hope it was George.” She “took too many drugs to remember” who it was, she added.

She also discussed being treated with electroconvulsive therapy, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, to trigger brief seizures and treat depression. — AFP