Well that settles it. 2016 is the worst. Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, for her memoirs and for her acerbic wit, has passed away aged 60. Carrie suffered a heart attack while on a flight on Friday from London to LA and was rushed to hospital. She was placed in ICU and eventually her condition was upgraded to “stable,” but sadly Carrie passed away today. As USA Today explains, was just on tour promoting her dishy latest book, The Princess Diarist.
The actress and author had been on tour to promote her latest memoir, The Princess Diarist, based on the diaries she kept as a 19-year-old shooting what is arguably the biggest movie of all time, 1977’s Star Wars, playing Rebel Alliance leader Princess Leia Organa, she of the famous double-bun hairstyle.
Her books, whether novels or memoirs, were funny, sharp and revealing. Among other things, her latest revealed her brief affair with co-star Harrison Ford, who was 14 years older and married with kids when they made Star Wars.
The actress was back onscreen playing Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 and Star Wars: Episode VIII, now in post-production. She, Ford and others in the original cast again found themselves walking red carpets, taking bows and taking Star Wars questions.
Fisher, as always, was accompanied by her little French bulldog Gary, the pooch who helped her cope with lifelong anxieties — later diagnosed as bipolar disorder — that helped lead to her problems with substance abuse.
Carrie Frances Fisher grew up marinated in Old Hollywood, loving and loathing it, embracing and rejecting it, always coming back to it as it evolved into New Hollywood. She was the daughter of crooner Eddie Fisher and Singin’ in the Rain star Debbie Reynolds, born in 1956 in Beverly Hills. Less than three years later, Eddie ran off to marry Elizabeth Taylor. It was a blow her mother eventually recovered from but Carrie not so much…
n 1987, she published her first novel, Postcards From the Edge, a semi-autobiographical satire of her real-life struggles with drug addiction in the late 1970s and her relationship with her mother. It was a best seller and later was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
Never shy about speaking her mind, she was open and often brutally honest in interviews and her books, discussing her love/hate dynamic with fans, her place as a geek goddess and that slave bikini she had to wear in 1983’s Return of the Jedi.
Throughout her up-and-down movie career, she remained a product of Hollywood who could step back and explain its history and rituals to the outsiders, always ready with a caustic comment or pointed joke. Hollywood could be exasperating and brutal, but it was still hers.
She felt somewhat the same about Leia. As she told USA TODAY last year, “I carry her around and I know her better than anybody else and we wear the same clothes a lot of times.
I had the pleasure of watching Carrie’s HBO special, a broadcast of her stage show Wishful Drinking, with my mother recently. Carrie is/was so clever, funny and outspoken and I can’t believe she’s gone. 60 is way too young to pass away and my heart goes out to her family. Carrie is survived by her daughter, Billie Lourd, 24, by her mother, Debbie Reynolds, 84, by her brother, Todd, by two half sisters and by her dog, Gary. We love you Carrie and we’ll miss you so much.
Photos credit: Riccardo Ghilardi, WENN and FameFlynet
Very sad…. From the outpour of grief and sadness from so many people it’s clear that she made a huge impact in her life and leaves us with a beautiful legacy.
Yes. This has been all over my FB feed. Friends who never posted about any other celebrity death this year are posting about her. So sad.
She was my writing partner for sophomore English at Beverly. She was so shy and quiet, but funny. RIP Carrie….you touched many lives in a positive way along your journey.
Sincere condolences to all her family and friends.
Please everybody keep in mind that “stable” is not a medical condition. You can be “stable” but dead. People were so happy to hear that she’d made it to the hospital and was “stable” in intensive care, but the story also said she was unresponsive when they got her off the plane, and she had not been breathing for ten minutes. So my guess (I am not a doctor) is that “stable” probably meant lots of machines keeping her body alive. Hospitals use terms like “good,” “fair,” “serious,” and “critical.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_state
Probably the case-but until her family arrived, what decisions could be made?
It’s like we can’t even recover from one and then there is another. In one week Alan Thicke, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher.
I’m sad 😢
I know! I’m in shock :'(
All these deaths had made me feel so uneasy. Like wow. Merry effing christmas.
I normally don’t care about celebrity death, but this one hurts. Rip princess leia. And my heart goes to Debby reynolds
Um, yes. Found myself crying about this one. In a world that very badly needs realists who tell it like it is, we have lost a truth-teller. I think that’s why it hurts so much. In a world full of liars we knew she wasn’t BS-ing.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Goodnight, sweet Princess, and rest in peace.
She’s Light, Force, and part of the Galaxy. Farewell, Carrie.
This year has been sponsored by the Sith.
Darth Vader has confirmed that he isn’t Sith, he’s alt-Jedi.
LOL, Shambles! Is it wrong to laugh? I guess we have to. There’s been so much awfulness in just the past couple of days, let alone all of 2016, and what awaits us in 2017 is terrifying. But it helps to laugh and know that so many of us are in this together (and I think Carrie Fisher would’ve appreciated your joke).
If for nothing else, I love her for those patent lace up shoes in the photo. But for a great deal else too, of course.
RIP, Carrie.
She was resolutely herself.
This bites.
Ok. Best. Ever. Carrie Fisher. Quote. On Star Wars. Drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.
“George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, “You can’t wear a bra under that dress.”
So, I say, “Okay, I’ll bite. Why?”
And he says, “Because. . . there’s no underwear in space.”
What happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn’t—so you get strangled by your own bra.
Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obituary -so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”
I saw that on Twitter and chuckled to myself. What a classic Carrie Fisher quote. Anna Kendrick’s tweets on Carrie were really sweet too:
“Carrie Fisher wore glitter in her hair. When I said I liked it, she ran her fingers through it and lobbed a handful at me. #TheGreatest 💔”
I need to go read her memoir now…
Absolutely classic!
If I could ever be bothered to wear a bra, I’d want the same epitaph!
One of the few celebs whom had impacted on my childhood somehow.
Rip Carrie, may the Force be with you.
And 2016 can die now, please?
I’m not a Star Wars person but I really liked Carrie as a person. She was a wonderful woman who did a lot to help others. It’s so strange to think that she made such a huge comeback last year and was in such a great place professionally. At least she went out at the top of her game and will hopefully be remembered that way. She will be missed.
I’m not either. But I loved her books, I loved her interviews and I truly loved who she was as a public person.
She was such a s/hero and role model. So sad for her mother and daughter. Too soon for Billie and no parent should ever have to bury a child.
Did you like When Harry Met Sally? She did the script revision and they said all the funny lines were hers. 😞
My favorite role for her was When Harry Met Sally. She was awesomeness.
i love her line describing Harry’s new girlfriend– blonde, big tots… Your basic nightmare. The way she delivered it cracked me up every time.
So sad. I feel like someone just kicked me in the gut.
Was hoping for a different outcome. Prayers to her family.
RIP. Thank you for taking us far, far away. We love and will miss you.
She was such a singular, shining light, so sad. RIP, Princess Ms Fisher.
Rest in peace, Carrie, you’ll be missed 🙁
Only four more days until this shitty year is over. I’m counting the minutes.
There are no words…
R.I.P. Carrie.
This has broken my heart. RIP.
F*ck you 2016! F*ck. You.
My heart is just too heavy. 🙁 I have no words.
I love you Carrie Fisher. <3
She was talented, a fighter, very human, very bright. Unique. There was no one else exactly like her. She didn’t have an easy life but she kept going and going. So sorry to hear this, even if it wasn’t a surprise.
RIP, Carrie!
RIP u will b missed. Condolences to her daughter and mother esp.
Whose next 2016? Can’t u leave the good ones alone and take the bad guys?
Fuck. Her honesty about her mental illness has helped me thru many hard times. My father (who died of a heart attack 20 years ago) took me to every Star Wars movie. I am gutted. I love her so much!
Sad news… 🙁 Rest In Peace, Carrie Fisher. Gone too soon. xx
I am so saddened by this. RIP Carrie.
May the Force be with you, Carrie, as you travel to that galaxy far, far away.
Okay, no, I was not ready for this…. RIP Carrie!!!!!
Seriously 2016 WTF?! Let’s all just go hide under our beds until this God-awful year has passed. So many wonderful people taken from us this year.
2016 is ending like it began, full of sorrow and grief 🙁
RIP Carrie.
No. Just no. How can we accept this? Not her, not now. My heart goes out to her family. Why can’t we just start this damn fucking year over again in an alternative timeline? But all I can do is sit here and listen to the ESB love theme and end credits and cry. 🙁
My condolences to her family, especially her mother. I absolutely love Postcards from the Edge. I was young and a lot of the humor went over my head, but I loved it!
RIP Funny Lady. Thank you for sharing your life with us.
me too, I loved that movie.
I don’t how Debbie can stand it.
so true. and Carrie spent a good part of her year nursing Debbie’s sicknesses. and now this…Carrie Fisher was amazing. brave. hilarious. brilliant. honest. lover of Gary. my heart is broken.
Another example of how the order of things is never guaranteed. Sometimes the one caring for an aging or sickly parent or spouse passes first.
I’m so unbelievably sad and only set a recording for postcards from the edge yesterday. It’s on pay tv here in Australia at the moment. I will now watch it with tears in my eyes.
Such a talented woman, from such a challenging life. Gone way too soon.
Sweet mama god, this is a rough year. My heart is heavy today. RIP, fair lady.
Carrie never felt like a “hollywood” celeb she came off normal like one of us regular folk. Not entitled or special, the type of famous person you could sit down with and have a chat. This one hurts because well Star Wars and her unique personality in the world of hollywood shallow. We will miss you Princess 🙁
We have a saying in Italy that goes like this:
‘Anno bisesto sempre funesto’ and it means ‘Leap years always bring bad news’
I am speechless and I hope 2016 will not squeeze someone else in before it ends in 4 days.
Someone please hide David Attenborough and the Queen. And MAdonna.
The ’80s have been exterminated.
Same in Argentina. Leap Years are bad news.
And Betty White. Stay away from her, 2016. Stay away and no one is going to get hurt.
and Tony Bennett!
and Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer.
We watched As Time Goes By so often they are like family.
Stay away from Paul McCartney too
I had never heard that. Thanks for sharing that. Cannot recall what 2012 brought.
But even tho I was not a fan of Wishful Drinking, her honesty and rare candor was so refreshing.
I loved Carrie Fisher, but during her last round of press it was obvious what a toll the heavy drug use had taken on her body, and the news of her heart attack wasn’t quite as shocking. I am so sad.
Damn it. This one hurts. A lot. When I was 7 years old, I wanted TO BE Princess Leia. I wanted to run around with my own blaster, save the universe and fall in love with Han Solo in my spare time. Carrie Fisher made it feel real.
I respected her for her honesty about her struggles with drugs and mental illness. I was truly impressed with her ability to write – both her published work and her script doctoring work.
May the Force be with her and her loved ones.
And in a morbid twist, there is a script writer somewhere crying in her beer – both because the world lost Carrie Fisher and because the script for Episode IX has just gone into a trash can. Full re-write, starting Monday.
I’m crushed. My boss just dropped this bomb on my as I was heading out to lunch and…yeah. I kinda just want to go home and pour one out to my homie.
I’m crying as if I knew her personally. I feel gutted.
Though I still have never seen a Star Wars movie (and I was a 70s kid), I remember how she went from a Hollywood golden child to a star in her own right.
I watched her cable special where the set was like a living room, with a giant board on which she outlined her various kinfolk and Liz Taylor step-kinfolk. Her parents’ public split was THE tabloid fodder of the late 1950s, and she could later joke about it.
She once joked that she and Debbie were grateful to Liz because she got Eddie Fisher out of their lives. She softened on her father and his demons later in life, though.
I thought it was funny and sweet how all three women seemed to get along so well from the late 1990s-on.
F*ck you, 2016! End already! Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Carrie Fisher….my childhood just died this year……
Alan Rickman is the one that hit me the most.
Let’s stop with the 2016 is the worst stuff. It has truly been the worst for entertainment and politics. Also, a lot of people were born this year; my 2016 was great because thankfully I’m still alive.
@Cali: That’s great for you, and I suppose I can admire your choosing to have a positive outlook. But, many of us hate 2016 because it’s not just about whether we personally survived or not. For me, it’s not even about the deaths of so many wonderful entertainers. Personally, 2016 was also awful because my wonderful mother-in-law very nearly died, and then not even a month later my beloved mother did die unexpectedly. I’ve literally spent most of the year swallowed up by grief and anxiety, and watching my family crumble. And then Trump not only happened, but made me aware of what terrible people a couple of my close relatives are, so I didn’t just lose my mom I’ve pretty much lost one of my brothers, too. So yeah, f*ck 2016. F*ck it. SO. MUCH.
Sorry Scarlet
I hope 2017 will bring you some joy, not to forget what happened but to at least make you smile with a lighter heart every so often.
Awesome for you Cali, but I’m equally entitled to say 2016 is the worst. I lost my dad and 2 friends this year. I can’t imagine a worse year. So I guess we’re each entitled to our own perspective and maybe we shouldn’t tell each other how to feel – seems a bit insensitive, non?
@ Scarlett
I know how you feel. I lost my mother a week before thanksgiving. I can’t tell you how the pain seem so unbearable. My dad had a heart attack in July but he fine now.. at least I hope.
Oh Scarlet, 10-yr anniversary of my mom’s death, and my dad is receding into the land of dementia. The blank stares on his face are just killing me. Star Wars was huge in high school and I remember going to the first showings the year it came out. So basically the child in me has been gutted. I hope 2017 is better for you….
Alan thick george michael carrie fisher ….all died too soon ..all from heart trouble…. terrible totally unnecessary
I hope it’s not an omen that so many of the cool people have left the planet.
What a suck year. RIP, Carrie. You and your sass will be missed.
I’m not saying this has been the worst year ever, I grew up in the ’60’s after all and am old enough to have been kicked in the teeth by life a few times but……jeez it seems like one death after another lately.
Carrie Fisher is especially hard, every day that went by I got my hopes up more that she would recover.
RIP Princess. Your legacy will never die.
My dad took me to see Star Wars, when it originally came out in theaters, and I remember how galvanizing it was to see this woman play a character who appeared to be begging for help at the beginning of the movie, and then essentially stepped up – and saved herself, when that help was slow to respond. In actuality she wasn’t begging, she was part of a conspiracy, she contributed toward planning and then played a major role.
When others (usually men) cowered before Darth Vader, (at this point in the movie you understood why) but Princess Leia – stood toe to toe with him – knowing what he was capable of, and that made quite an impact on a 7 year old girl watching this movie – not just the first time she saw it, but every time she saw it thereafter.
Later on, I began to appreciate the gossip aspect of Carrie Fishers life.
Her father was Eddie Fisher, who left her mother Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor – in one other the biggest scandals of the day. Carrie as a child, was the daughter of Hollywood royalty, she couldn’t escape or be spared from knowing her father, had immediately become one of the most reviled man on the planet.
Unsurprisingly, Carrie grew up and was a hard charging partier herself, after the massive life changing success of the iconic Star Wars franchise, she underwent rehab, wrote a book…went on to star in my favorite movie the Blues Brothers (yeah I know – don’t judge). And she hung around long enough to make it to this last Star Wars reboot.
She crammed a lot of life into those years. There are so many people whose lives she touched, who will be impacted by her loss.
Debbie Reynolds has my utmost sympathy at this time, I can’t imagine how awful it must be at her age, (or any age, really) to have lost a child.
Debbie is such a wonderful woman, who had a long and amazing career, and has given so much over her lifetime, and sadly can’t even be allowed to enjoy her golden years in peace.
Bless Carrie’s family and friends, at this very trying time.
I loved her in the Blues Brothers too! She was perfect…..like everything she did. Funny and flawed and honest and beautiful.
So sad. Poor Debbie. Age 84 and losing her daughter. I
Yes. Definitely keeping Debbie Reynolds in my thoughts. This must be unspeakably painful for her. She has had a tough life, too but, like her daughter, has great wit and grace. Not long ago, I saw a re-run of an interview she did with Dick Cavett in the early 70s, and she was very amusing and fun to watch. Prayers to her right now.
I was young when I first saw Leia, and it was like, “Hell, yeah!” She was intelligent, sounded intelligent, was brave and fierce, not a girly girl, and knew her own mind- she didn’t cower before anyone.
I admired Carrie Fisher for that intelligence, for her forthrightness, wit and guts and exceptional gifts, for her humanity. I can’t say that about most celebrities. Sixty is a ridiculous age to die. May the Force be with her.
Me too—she kicked ass. She was strong, funny, beautiful, fearless, smart, sexy—I looked up to her so much. Sobbing here …
Any loss should make people think. Get things in order and spend time with the people you love. Let go the petty shit and think. Because nothing is certain. Nothing is guaranteed.
RIP Ms. Fisher… and prayers to your family.
Wise words. After personally experiencing more than one sudden loss, I have learned to treat EVERY interaction as if it could be the last with that person. I never assume anything, and don’t want to live with regret of arguing or being dismissive over something insignificant.
Excuse me while I hide under a table and sob. I hate everything.
I was really hopeful when her mom said she had stabilized, but I guess 2016 is trying to get as many roundhouse kicks to the soul as it can before the end of the week.
God, her poor mother. No parent wants to outlive their child.
Her family may have been hopeful, but then again, ‘stable’ is a very generic medical term.
One can be in critical but stable condition, which only means there isn’t a noticeable change over a brief time. My mother was described that way after an ER trip, and she suddenly passed a few hours later. I mistakenly thought ‘stable’ meant something it doesn’t. Joan Rivers was also described as ‘stable’.
My mother was in the hospital in 1995 following a heart attack. I called her at 8 PM and she said the doctor told her she’d be going home in two days. Three hours later I got THE call from my sister.
Christin I’m so glad you said that. A lot of times the hospital staff say “stable” meaning unchanged, without really conveying to families how bad things really are. It’s partly because they’re used to people being in that kind of condition and I think partly protective because no one wants to dash your hopes or confront that kind of sadness.
It also bought the family some time and hopefully some privacy. I hope it kept the media off their backs a little bit.
I didn’t know until today that Gary was a service dog.I wondered why she took him on The View, Today Show, etc.I thought she was just being a diva.I am not a Star Wars fan but I loved watching her on talk shows.I also loved Postcards from the Edge.
RIP
This has been the worst f-cking year ever. Today is my birthday and I really feel so down– George Michael, Carrie Fisher and Trump for the rest of his natural life (which I’m sure will be a long one). Just crap. Let’s hope for a better 2017.
Aw … Sending you good wishes and white light for your birthday. And sharing your hope for a better 2017.
“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.”
RIP Carrie Fisher
Heartbreaking. I feel terrible for her family (and her dog). RIP, general.
Had a nice small but funny role in the Blues Brothers as the vengeful bride stood up by Belushi’s Jake Joliet.
I’ve been bracing myself for this news. I was so hoping she’d pull through. RIP Carrie.
Fckity fck you, 2016
Oh god, this is so sad.. 2016 is definetely an awful year, hope it goes by fast.
I am heartbroken.
When will this END… Another ICON dies too…………… OMG. It is almost 2017 and already going to be a SHIT year in 2017. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY,
I really don’t like 2016. We have lost so many greats this year…
David Bowe, Prince, George Michael, Alan Thicke, Florence Henderson, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali, Alan Rickman, and Patty Duke. This year sucks so bad…
Last year w/ the celebrity break up was much better. May her rest in power and that her family can have some closure after this.
Richard Adams-Watership Down-has died at 96. One more gone.
yes 🙁
I had a good cry for him too.
F*ck u 2016. Really. F*ck you!
I’m a huge SW fan and I’m gutted. Princess Leia was my childhood sheroe next to my mom and grandma. I wanted to be her when I grew up. This has been a terrible year not only due to the celebrity and political stuff, It’s also because my mom had a stroke and mild heart attack(she’s doing good thank god) and my husband was unexpectedly diagnosed with early stage kidney cancer. 2016 can die in a fire.
I think at this rate, people will celebrate new year’s eve because they survived 2016.
Lol true!
So sad. RIP, Carrie.
God dammit – no. This absolutely sucks.
I remember her in those movies, and I always wanted to be as pretty and brave as Princess Leia..isn’t it strange…now that I’m all grown up I want to be as beautiful, witty, and strong as Carrie Fisher. My thoughts and prayers to her family & her fur baby, Gary.
Just two days ago I watched the episode of QI with Carrie. She was so witty and funny. Such a great loss
I will always remember her as someone who had a singular life.
Incredibly sad. I am a huge fan of her writing and she has been such a giant part of our cultural lives. Just watched her Netflix one woman show a couple months ago and thought it was fantastic. Carrie, we hardly knew you!
I’m crying in the nail salon. That’s that.
This hurts so much. I couldn’t connect with any of the fictional characters they throw at little girls. Too passive, too weak. Leia was my hero. Able to love, able to fight, able to lead a revolution. I grew up to love Carrie’s writing, wit and candor.
She was a treasure, we were lucky to have had her at all.
Star Wars made me want to become a writer way back when I saw it at 13 years old – when it was released. And Princess Leia as played by the unique Carrie Fisher was a huge inspiration for a girl already inspired by Wonder Woman as a child. I write fantasy novels to this day and populate them with strong females. This loss, on top of so many already this year, creates a space that no one can fill and yet she will continue to inspire. My condolences to her mother, brother, daughter and furbaby.
Carrie was such a fighter, I held out hopes she’d make it through. Hopefully she is at peace, she certainly earned it. My heart is broken for her loved ones.
The Debbie Reynolds and Liz Taylor/Eddie Fisher scandal was the Jen Anniston and Brangelina affair of the 1950s. Liz wound up leaving Eddie finally for Richard Burton. Carrie wrote a TV movie starring her mom and Liz called These Old Broads. Part of it was based on the whole incident and was funny as hell. In the movie Liz gets to apologize for stealing “Freddie” from Debbie’s character.
I’m glad Carrie acknowledged the importance Star Wars had on the world and wasn’t bitter about being Princess Leia forever in our hearts! RIP.
Hey 2016……go kick yourself in the dick (sorry to be crude……that’s the nicest thing I can say at this point)
I cried when I heard the news. I was never a Star Wars fan, but Carrie always had that magic. I loved how open she was about mental illness. I had hoped we wouldn’t be deprived of her wit and wisdom.
Let’s never forget that she was strangled in the moonlight by her own bra. 😉
And the light side of the force has gained one of the brightest and fiercest fighters. Rest in peace, princess, your wit and charm shall be missed.
Ripley, Princess Leia, Sarah Connor. My cinematic idols. There has never been any other character that match their strength, their intelligence, their womanhood. They did not need to beat a man physically to outmatch them.
Why does she not have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ? I mean, seriously? They let some crap “stars” on there but she doesn’t have a star? WTH.