May the force be with you, Carrie
Star Wars icon dies at age of 60
STAR WARS icon Carrie Fisher died in a Los Angeles hospital yesterday. She was 60.
She passed away four days after a massive heart attack on a flight home from London. Reports said she never regained consciousness.
Daughter Billie, 24, announced her mum’s death and said: “She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly.”
Carrie’s role as Princess Leia in Star Wars made her face one of the most
famous on the planet. But she endured a chaotic off-screen life, dogged by drug and alcohol problems, failed relationships and mental illness.
Carrie never truly made it to the top as a movie star.
But she was respected as a gifted actress, novelist and screen writer, and loved for the way she confronted her many problems with searing honesty and outrageous humour.
The head of the Star Wars franchise, Kathleen Kennedy, said of her: “She had an indomitable spirit, incredible wit and a loving heart.
“As Princess Leia, she also defined the female hero of our age.”
Carrie joked that she was born famous. She was the daughter of Singing in the Rain star Debbie Reynolds and chart-topper Eddie Fisher, who later left her mum for Elizabeth Taylor.
Eddie died in 2010 but Debbie, 84, survives Carrie. She wrote on Facebook yesterday: “Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter. “Love, Carrie’s mother.” Carrie also leaves a brother, Todd. US reports said her death came as a shock to her family, who had hoped she would recover.
The young Carrie studied drama in London and New York before landing her first film role in Shampoo in 1975.
Star Wars came two years later, but she didn’t think it would amount to much. She once said: “When I got the part in this goofy little sciencefiction film, I thought, ‘I’ll go hang out with a bunch of robots for a few months and then try to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”
Instead, Carrie found herself one of the principal faces of the biggest movie franchise on earth.
Her co-stars were grieving last night. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, tweeted: “No words. Devastated.”
Peter Mayhew, alias Chewbacca, added: “Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered.”
Carrie, in her typically fearless way, admitted she “bugged” Harrison Ford recently when she revealed in her new book that they were once lovers.
She wrote in The Princess Diarist about their torrid three-month affair on the set of the first Star Wars movie. He was married at the time.
But Harrison said of her yesterday: “Carrie was
Carrie was brilliant, original, funny and fearless. She lived, bravely HARRISON FORD
one of a kind – brilliant, original, funny and emotionally fearless. “She lived her life, bravely.” Carrie’s charm and humour never failed her, but her health often did. She battled for much of her life with bipolar disorder and strong attractions to LSD, alcohol, painkillers and cocaine. She once said: “Drugs made me feel normal. They contained me.” She added later: “Part of me gets surprised when people think I’m brave to talk about what I’ve gone through. “I was brave to last through it.” Carrie managed to get sober in 1985, then an accidental overdose of prescription drugs put her in hospital and forced her to move back in with her mum. The episode inspired her book Postcards from the Edge, which she turned into a hit movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
Another low came in 2005, when Carrie woke to find a friend next to her in bed – dead from an overdose.
Carrie’s love life was often a source of grief. She was with singing superstar Paul Simon for seven years before they married, but they were divorced within 11 months.
Then agent Bryan Lourd, her lover for three years and Billie’s dad, left her too – for a man. She said in 2012: “I turn people gay. It’s an unusual superpower.”
Through all her troubles, Carrie kept producing memorable work.
Many fans fondly recall her cameo as John Belushi’s homicidal jilted lover in The Blues Brothers. Many more love her from When Harry Met Sally.
There were the two original Star Wars sequels, of course, and that metallic gold bikini beloved by young male sci-fi fans everywhere.
Carrie also appeared in Hannah and Her Sisters, Austin Powers and Scream 3, and on TV shows including Frasier, Sex and the City and new British sitcom Catastrophe. She was semi-regular on Family Guy, playing the boss of the brewery where Peter Griffin works.
But she was even more respected for her work off screen. She was in demand as a “script doctor”, polishing the writing on movies including Hook, Sister Act and Lethal Weapon 3.
There were more books too, including Shockaholic, where she described her experiences with stepmum Taylor and her friend Michael Jackson.
And she was highly praised for her one-woman show with a classic Carrie title: Wishful Drinking.
Carrie was loved for all the work she did, deliberate and otherwise, to raise awareness of bipolar disorder.
She appeared in fellow sufferer Stephen Fry’s BBC documentary about the illness in 2006.
He said last night: “She was the brightest, funniest, bravest, kindest, cleverest and sweetest person I ever knew. A crushing blow to lose.”
Carrie reprised her role as Leia last year in Star Wars – The Force Awakens, and fans will see her next year in Star Wars VIII. She finished her work on the film before her death.