‘Funny, fearless, one-of-a-kind’
during a break in the filming of the
in Los Angeles on Nov 13, 1978. LOS ANGELES: Carrie Fisher, who rose to fame as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films and later endured drug addiction before going on to tell her story as a best-selling author, died on Tuesday, her family said.
Fisher, a mental health advocate who spoke about her own struggles with bipolar disorder and cocaine addiction, had suffered a heart attack on Friday as she flew here.
The daughter of actor Debbie Reynolds and the late singer Eddie Fisher was returning from England, where she was shooting the third season of the British sitcom Catastrophe.
“Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter,” Reynolds said on Facebook.
“I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop.”
Fisher’s friend and Star Wars’ costar Mark Hamill, who played Leia’s brother Luke Skywalker, said in a tweet: “No words. #Devastated.”
Fisher was met by paramedics and rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre after suffering the heart attack.
She made headlines last month when she disclosed that she had a three-month love affair with her Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford, 40 years ago.
She revealed the secret to People magazine while promoting her new memoir, The Princess Diarist, just before it went on sale.
The book is based on her diaries from her time working on the first Star Wars movie.
Harrison said Fisher was funny, emotionally fearless and one-of-akind.
“She lived her life, bravely... We will all miss her.”
Fisher said the affair started and ended in 1976 during production on the blockbuster sci-fi adventure in which she first appeared as the intrepid Princess Leia. Ford played the maverick space pilot Han Solo.
“It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend,” Fisher told People.
She was 19 and Ford was 33 at the time.
Fisher reprised the role in two Star Wars sequels, gaining sex-symbol status in 1983’s Return of the Jedi when her character wore a metallic gold bikini while enslaved by the diabolical Jabba the Hutt. Reuters