In what seems to be an all too frequent occurrence in 2016 another high profile celebrity is dead. Carrie Fisher, who gained international fame and fans for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars movie franchise has died at the age of 60. Fisher was on a flight four days ago and suffered a major heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. According to reports she never regained consciousness after the cardiac event.
The actress was the daughter of Hollywood screen legend Debbie Reynolds and singer, actor, and notorious Hollywood womanizer Eddie Fisher. Eddie Fisher left Reynolds and married her best friend Elizabeth Taylor, making Taylor Fisher’s stepmother. Carrie Fisher had a very tumultuous life and admitted she first started smoking marijuana when she was 13. Throughput her early teens she was tormented by substance abuse but still managed to get roles on stage and the big screen when she starred alongside movie star Warren Beatty in the movie 1975 movie Shampoo. She later enrolled in London’s Central School of Speech and Drama but dropped out when she received her famous role of Princess Leia at the age of 19. The movie franchise is legendary but during this time period she admitted that she suffered from severe mental illness and cocaine addiction.
Fisher stated in her memoirs entitled “The Princess Diaries” that she was high on cocaine during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back and its sequel Return of the Jedi. Her addiction led to the breakup of her 11-month marriage to multi-Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Paul Simon. His relationship with her according to Fisher was the inspiration to the hit “Still Crazy After All These Years”. Although no longer doing major roles Fisher was worked behind the scenes as a script doctor, improving and rewriting parts of major Hollywood movies including Sister Act, The Wedding Singer and Outbreak. She returned to the big screen to reprise her role as Princess Leia in the blockbuster movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was announced last week that she had finished principal filming for the next Star Wars sequel to be released.
