For a while it looked as if there was hope. Hospitalised after suffering a heart attack on a flight from the UK to LA on Christmas Eve, Carrie Fisher was described as in a critical but stable condition. Sadly, having made it through Christmas, she died today. She was 60, and the tragic news was confirmed by her daughter, Billie Lourd.
Fisher was born in 1956, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. A bookish child, she nevertheless began following in her mother's footsteps early, appearing in the Reynolds-starring Broadway revival of the musical Irene in 1973, when she was just 15. Her film debut came two years later in Hal Ashby's Shampoo.
Having never graduated high school due to work commitments, Fisher had intended to return to her studies, accepting a place at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College, to begin in 1978. But then Star Wars happened. Cast as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' world-conquering sci-fi, she became indelibly identified with the role of the feisty rebel eventually responsible for the downfall of the evil Galactic Empire (not to mention two Death Stars). She played Leia twice more in the original saga, through The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi (wherein lies that infamous gold bikini). And she returned last year as the older, wiser and higher-ranking General Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
But there was far more to her than Leia. On film she appeared in The Blues Brothers, Hannah And Her Sisters, The 'Burbs and When Harry Met Sally. There was also further Broadway work. And she wrote too. Her first novel (a thinly veiled fictonalised autobiography) Postcards From The Edge was published in 1987, and she adapted the screenplay herself for Mike Nichols' 1990 film starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. She followed that book with the novels Surrender The Pink (1990), Delusions Of Grandma (1993) and The Best Awful There Is (2004). Her non-fiction included the memoirs Wishful Drinking (which she adapted as a one-woman play), Shockaholic (2011) and the just-published The Princess Diarist.
Her colourful personal life saw her romantically attached at one time or another to Paul Simon (whose song "Hearts & Bones" is about their relationship), Dan Aykroyd, talent agent Bryan Lourd and, she revealed in The Princess Diarist, Harrison Ford. Her battles with alcoholism, substance abuse and bipolar disorder were well-documented – not least by Fisher herself – and there were "wilderness years" when she seemed absent from the public eye. But even during those times she was marking out a new career as one of Hollywood's most successful script doctors, contributing uncredited work to the likes of – among many others – Steven Spielberg's Hook and George Lucas' Star Wars prequels and Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
In recent years she'd been more visible again, popping up on TV in Weeds, Entourage, The Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, and the British Catastrophe. Following her return to the Star Wars family in The Force Awakens, we'll see her now final appearance as Leia next Christmas: her scenes for Star Wars: Episode VIII were completed.
"It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8.55 this morning," Lourd's publicist said in the official announcement. "She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers."
Mark Hamill tweeted, "No words."