Carrie Fisher was an American actress, screenwriter and author, most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Fisher was the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. She had one daughter, Billie Lourd (b. 1992). Her final film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017 and is dedicated to her.
In 1998, she checked into a substance-abuse program for addiction to prescription drugs.
Daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
Her father, Eddie Fisher , left her mother, Debbie Reynolds , when Carrie was two years old in order to marry Elizabeth Taylor.
Mother, with Bryan Lourd , of daughter Billie Lourd (Billie Catherine Lourd), born on July 17, 1992.
Older half-sister of Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Older sister of Todd Fisher.
The punk rock group Blink 182 wrote a song called "A New Hope", in which her Star Wars character Princess Leia is the lead singers dream girl.
She made her stage debut in 1975 in the chorus of the musical Irene, which starred her mother, Debbie Reynolds.
Half-sister-in-law of Christopher Duddy and Byron Thames.
Attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back , which also starred Mark Hamill. It was the first time the two had appeared in the same film since Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi . Neither of them knew the other was involved in the project until shortly after filming had been completed. They would later reunite again in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens .
She did her very first European signing in London, England in a hotel library on August 3, 2003. It was an exclusive one-day signing, and tickets limited to 500.
She has confirmed in her autobiography that she disliked the "bagel bun" hairstyle she wore in the original Star Wars . However, prior to filming, the studio had requested that she lose some weight first, which she hadnt. Out of fear of being fired for it, she was eager to comply with everything that director George Lucas suggested, which included the hairstyle.
When asked to choose her favorite moment from the original Star Wars trilogy, she explained that her favorite moments were the arguing scenes between her and Harrison Ford.
She had to stand on a box for many of her scenes with Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars trilogy because she was roughly a foot shorter than him and did not fit into the frame.
Former stepdaughter of Connie Stevens , Harry Karl and Elizabeth Taylor.
She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and spoke on this topic to thousands of psychiatrists assembled for the American Psychiatric Associations Annual Meeting in May 2004 in New York City.
She was listed as a potential nominee on the 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballot in the category of the Worst Supporting Actress category for her performance in the film Undiscovered , however, she failed to receive a nomination.
Weighed 7 lbs 2 ozs at birth.
Her mother, Debbie Reynolds , lived next door to her for most of her life.
She was once engaged to Dan Aykroyd.
She has one daughter, Billie Lourd , whose father is the film agent, Bryan Lourd. Fisher and Lourd never married. After he left her for a man, she used the experience as the opening premise for her novel, The Best Awful.
She wrote several novels, including the semi-autobiographical Postcards from the Edge, a thinly veiled study of the relationship between Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. It later became the film Postcards from the Edge , which starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine in the Fisher and Reynolds roles respectively.
She revealed in her memoir Wishful Drinking that she once had a romantic relationship with U.S. Senator Chris Dodd . When Dodd was asked for a comment by a reporter from The Kansas City Star in 2007, he explained that "it was a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.".
She was good friends with Michael Jackson and Meryl Streep. Streep portrayed Fisher in Postcards from the Edge .
In her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking, she noted that, like her mother in Singin in the Rain (1952) , she became famous at age 19 for her role in a classic hit alongside two male co-stars. She also mentioned that the title of Star Wars could also refer to her celebrity parents infamous divorce.
Her personal assistant was Kim Painter.
She was author William Goldman s first choice for the character Buttercup in The Princess Bride , a role which went to Robin Wright instead.
She was longtime friends with Miguel Ferrer , who encouraged her and helped her prepare for her Star Wars audition. Their mothers - Debbie Reynolds and Rosemary Clooney respectively - were both best known for their performances in hit 1950s musicals: Singin in the Rain (1952) and White Christmas .
She continued to date Paul Simon for 8 years after their divorce, until finally breaking up in 1991.
She appeared in Star Wars parody episodes of both "Family Guy" and "Robot Chicken" . She played Mon Mothma, one of the few other female characters in the series. In the latter series, Princess Leia - now played by Alex Borstein - says: "I dont like her".
Sister-in-law of Catherine Hickland , and ex-sister-in-law of Donna Jean Freberg and Donavan Freberg.
Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her mother had English, some Scottish, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and German, and distant French, ancestry.
She wrote her own scene for her cameo appearance in Scream 3 .
In 1990, she sold the big screen rights to her book, Surrender the Pink, to Warner Bros. for $1 million. Steven Spielberg was producing, with Demi Moore attached to star. Fisher wrote the screenplay, but the project stalled in development.
In 1994, she did a rewrite of the script of Intolerable Cruelty , shortly after the original script sold. The Coen Brothers rewrote the script years later and none of Fishers work remained in the finished film.
She accomplished a 35-pound weight loss in her preparation for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens .
She admitted that she found it difficult to act opposite Peter Cushing in Star Wars for two reasons: she thought the dialog was awful, and Cushing was so nice and polite to her on set between takes that she found it very difficult to show the disdain her character, Princess Leia, felt towards Cushings character, Grand Moff Tarkin.
Her French bulldog Gary accompanied her everywhere, even onto TV talk show sets whenever she was a guest.
She auditioned for the lead role in Carrie , while Sissy Spacek auditioned for Princess Leia in Star Wars , as George Lucas and Brian De Palma were holding joint auditions. They ultimately swapped roles. Contrary to popular belief, Fisher did not turn down Spaceks role because of the nudity involved.
She was originally cast as Miss Scarlett in Clue , but had to check into rehab a week before filming began.
Her final acting project was the third season of "Catastrophe" . She was the only cast member allowed to improvise and her own real life dog Gary portrays her dog on the show. She passed away a week after finishing work on the show.
She co-starred with her daughter, Billie Lourd , in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi . Lourd auditioned without Fishers awareness.
On the day after Carrie died, her grief-stricken mother Debbie Reynolds suffered a stroke, and also passed away.
She was well known for her sense of humor and quick wit. One of her father Eddie Fisher s first hits in the 1950s was a song entitled "Oh! My Pa-Pa". Her father, of course, had a scandalous affair with Elizabeth Taylor and ultimately left her mother, Debbie Reynolds to marry Taylor. When Fisher and Reynolds were making a joint television appearance, Fisher quipped that her mother could sing, too, and should have written and sang a song entitled, "Oh! My Faux Pas".
She suffered an ectopic pregnancy whilst married to Paul Simon in May 1984.
She turned down the role of Emmeline Lestrange in The Blue Lagoon which went to Brooke Shields , the role of Sarah Connor in The Terminator which went to Linda Hamilton , and the role of Kathryn Murphy in The Accused which went to Kelly McGillis.
As well as working as a script doctor for films, she also polished scripts for George Lucas television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" . Lucas had directed Fisher as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. There exists a Stars Wars script purported to be hers, which shows extensive pen and ink changes to the dialog, perhaps marking the beginning of the script doctor part of her career. Lucas later hired her to polish the scripts of the original trilogys prequels Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace , Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones , and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith .
She was considered for several roles which ultimately went to other actresses, including the role of Regan in The Exorcist which went to Linda Blair , the role of Iris in Taxi Driver which went to Jodie Foster , the roles of Violet in Pretty Baby and Jade Butterfield in Endless Love which went to Brooke Shields , the role of Rizzo in Grease which went to Stockard Channing , the role of Lois Lane in Superman which went to Margot Kidder , the role of Linda in Arthur which went to Liza Minnelli , the role of Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High which went to Phoebe Cates , the role of Elvira Hancock in Scarface which went to Michelle Pfeiffer , the role of Deborah Gelly in Once Upon a Time in America which went to Elizabeth McGovern , the role of Maerose Prizzi in Prizzis Honor which went to Anjelica Huston , the role of Charlie in Top Gun which went to Kelly McGillis , the role of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction which went to Glenn Close , the role of Katharine Parker in Working Girl which went to Sigourney Weaver , the role of Vicki Vale in Batman which went to Kim Basinger , the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman which went to Julia Roberts , the role of Kate McCallister in Home Alone which went to Catherine OHara , the role Jennifer Vaitkus in Backdraft which went to Jennifer Jason Leigh , the role of Thelma Dickinson in Thelma & Louise which went to Geena Davis , the role of Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct which went to Sharon Stone , and the role of Annie in Speed which went to Sandra Bullock.
She died the same year as her Star Wars co-star Kenny Baker.
The character her daughter, Billie Lourd , plays in "Scream Queens" is always seen wearing a pair of ear muffs, a tribute to Fishers iconic hairstyle in her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars and its sequels.
In addition to her credited screenplay adaptation of her novel Postcards from the Edge and a credit on one episode of the sitcom "Roseanne," Fisher was for several years a highly sought-after, highly paid, uncredited Hollywood script doctor. Fisher did uncredited rewrites on such screenplays as Hook, Sister Act, The Last Action Hero, The Wedding Singer, Scream 3 (in which she also had a small role as Bianca), and the 1999-2005 Star Wars prequels.
Was best friends with Richard Dreyfuss.
Was good friends with Courtney Love , and Stephen Fry.
(June 16, 2017) Her death was caused by sleep apnea and other undetermined factors, the Los Angeles County Coroners Office revealed.
In her later years, Fisher had an emotional support animal, a French Bulldog named Gary, whom she brought to numerous appearances and interviews. Following her death, reports indicated that Fishers daughter Billie Lourd would take care of Gary.
In 2016, Harvard College gave Fisher its Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism, noting that "her forthright activism and outspokenness about addiction, mental illness, and agnosticism have advanced public discourse on these issues with creativity and empathy.".
In an interview with the New York Times, she revealed that she made George Lucas give her a copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special in exchange for recording DVD commentary for the Star Wars films. She added that she showed it at parties, "mainly at the end of the night when I want people to leave.".
Fisher described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God". She was raised Protestant, but often attended Jewish services (her fathers faith) with Orthodox friends.
She was originally contracted to portray Miss Scarlet in Clue , but withdrew to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. Lesley Ann Warren was cast instead.
She hosted the episode of "Saturday Night Live" that featured the first appearance of the Blues Brothers and appeared in The Blues Brothers .
She was a spokesperson for Jenny Craig weight loss television ads that aired in January 2011.
In her 2016 autobiography "The Princess Diarist", Fisher wrote that she and Harrison Ford had a three-month affair during the filming of Star Wars in 1976.
I was street-smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.
I always wanted to do what my mother did-- get all dressed up, shoot,people, fall in the mud. I never considered anything else.
I was born into big celebrity. It could only diminish.
I think of my body as a side effect of my mind.
[on time] Instant gratification takes too long.
[on experience] Maturity: A stoic response to endless reality.
Backstage.
[2008, in "Wishful Drinking"] Resentment is like drinking poison and,waiting for the other person to die.
I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.
ligion is the opiate of the masses. " "I did masses of opiates religiously.
I thought you might supply some tendernessI lackedBut out of all the things I offered you took mybreath awayand now I want it back,To make him important in one’s life requires an overactive imagination. Unfortunately, mine never knows when to quit.
She wanted so to be tranquil, to be someone who took walks in the late-afternoon sun, listening to the birds and crickets and feeling the whole world breathe. Instead, she lived in her head like a madwoman locked in a tower, hearing the wind howling through her hair and waiting for someone to come and rescue her from feeling things so deeply that her bones burned.
I shot through my twenties like a luminous thread through a dark needle, blazing toward my destination: Nowhere.
You were very serious,” her grandmother continued. “You had these big brown eyes and you were always going, ‘What’s that? What’s that?’ You wondered what everything was. You would frown and point a lot, like a conductor looking for your orchestra. You always seemed very busy, like you were between appointments all the time, but you were just a little child.
You know how they say that religion is the opiate of the masses? Well, I took masses of opiates religiously.
Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
Revenge may not be a particularly high consciousness-oriented activity.
Movies are dreams! And they work on you subliminally.
Going to AA helped me to see that there were other people who had problems that had found a way to talk about them and find relief and humor through that.
I really love the internet. They say chat-rooms are the trailer park of the internet but I find it amazing.
I think that the truth is a really stern taskmistress.
Instant gratification takes too long. .
