Carrie Fisher was an actress, author and screenwriter who was perhaps best known for her most enduring role, Princess Leia in the Star Wars film franchise. The daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, she also appeared in numerous other movies and television productions, and was a successful author and screenwriter who drew upon her personal experience as a child of Hollywood in her work.
Fisher grew up in Beverly Hills and broke into show business at age 15 with a role in the Broadway musical Irene, which starred her mother. At 17, she made her film debut in the 1975 release Shampoo, starring Warren Beatty.
Two years later came Star Wars, which would make her a pop-culture icon for the rest of her life. She reprised the role of Leia in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, Return of the Jedi in 1983, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 and in the still-untitled Star Wars installment scheduled for release in December 2017.
Her other film credits included The Blues Brothers, Under the Rainbow, Hannah and Her Sisters, When Harry Met Sally..., Soap Dish and many others.
Fisher also appeared in dozens of television series, made-for-TV movies and talk shows, including Come Back, Little Sheba, Saturday Night Live, Laverne & Shirley, Amazing Stories, Frasier, Sex and the City, These Old Broads, Good Morning, Miami, Smallville, Weeds, 30 Rock, Entourage, The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce and Catastrophe.
She garnered acclaim for her debut novel, the semiautobiographical Postcards from the Edge, which was later adapted into a successful film with Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. Her other books included the novels Surrender the Pink, Delusions of Grandma and The Best Awful There Is, and the memoirs Wishful Drinking, Shockaholic and The Princess Diarist. She also wrote the screenplays for Postcards from the Edge, These Old Broads and E-Girl.
Her numerous professional accolades included two Emmy nominations — in 2008, for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, for her work on 30 Rock; and in 2011, for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Wishful Drinking.
Fisher died on December 26, 2016, in Los Angeles. She was 60.
