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Iconic Star Wars Actress Carrie Fisher Dies at 60 (people.com)

Carrie Fisher, the actress, author and screenwriter who brought a rare combination of nerve, grit and hopefulness to her most indelible role, as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" film franchise, died on Tuesday morning at the age of 60. From a report: "It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning," reads the statement. Fisher was flying from London to Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 23, when she went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics removed her from the flight and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for a heart attack. She later died in the hospital. The daughter of renowned entertainers Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Fisher was brought up in the sometimes tumultuous world of film, theater and television. Escaping Hollywood in 1973, the star enrolled in the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where she spent over a year studying acting. Just two years later, though, the bright lights of Hollywood drew her back, and Fisher made her film debut in the Warren Beatty-led Shampoo. Her role in Star Wars would follow in 1977 -- and she detailed the experience, including her on-set affair with costar Harrison Ford, in her latest memoir, The Princess Diarist. She was only 19 when the first installment of the beloved sci-fi franchise was filmed. Fisher's fans, family, and colleagues have paid their tribute to the actress The Guardian has published an intense tribute to Fisher in an article titled "The loss of Carrie Fisher is felt by all who love Hollywood, warmth and wit".

From BBC's obituary of Fisher: She was a self-confessed bookworm as a child reading poetry and classical literature. Her high school education was disrupted by the lure of the stage when she appeared in the musical Irene alongside her mother, and she never graduated. She moved to London where she enrolled in the Central School of Speech and Drama before returning to the US and attending the Sarah Lawrence arts college near New York. Having managed to kick drugs and alcohol, she was rushed to hospital in 1985 after accidentally taking an overdose of sleeping pills and prescription drugs. The episode formed the basis for her first novel, the semi-autobiographical Postcards from the Edge, in which she satirised her own dependence on drugs and the sometimes difficult relationship she had with her mother. Three years later Fisher adapted it into a screenplay, and it was made into a film starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid. Fisher -- who had bipolar disorder -- also wrote and frequently talked in public about her years of drug addiction and mental illness. Carrie Fisher's fame as an actress rested on just one role, but it was a role in one of the best known and most successful film franchises in cinema history. She was remarkably frank about the personal difficulties she had fought and overcome. "There's a part of me that gets surprised when people think I am brave to talk about what I've gone through," she once said. "I was brave to last through it." The world is poorer without you, Fisher. Rest in peace.

23 of 456 comments (clear)

  1. Disturbance in the force by ronaldbeal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happned

    1. Re:Disturbance in the force by Dogtanian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      She will always be with us... as long as we have CGI

      Look- I'm wary of coming across as overly self-righteous here, which isn't the intent. However, this isn't the first comment I've read whose first response was along the lines of "It's okay, we have CGI" or "I hope they digitised here before she died".

      I mean, seriously? Carrie Fisher- the real-life human being- has died. I'm assuming the people saying this are more into Star Wars than I am, and I'd have thought they'd at least feel something for the passing of Carrie Fisher as an actual human being in her own right rather than simply the means to reproduce Leia.

      Please don't take this as a criticism of people whose primary interest in Fisher was as Leia- that's understandable; it's a major film series, and that was her best-known role. And I suspect the majority of Star Wars fans didn't respond like this... I just find the few that did a little inappropriate.

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  2. Sorry to hear of her passing by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just as a new generation of Star Wars fans were getting to know her, she suddenly passed away. May the Force be with her.

    1. Re:Sorry to hear of her passing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All the Star Wars movies were "just cash-grabs", and it objectively WAS the same Leia in every possible respect.

  3. I know... by bytethese · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As we all collectively say "You'll be missed", she's somewhere looking at us and saying "I know".

    1. Re: I know... by Rakarra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      it's not a matter of hate, it's a matter of being realistic about a 1-hit actress.

      When someone dies and people are mourning the loss, what sort of person makes it his mission to shout "eh, she wasn't all that! Overrated!"

      Someone a bit fucked up in the head.

  4. She was more than Leia by djbckr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She was a very complex person, and before people start beating her up because she "let herself go" (which, by the way, she readily admitted)... You weren't her, you didn't have her problems and her life. Could she have done things differently? Of course. But, it is what it is. An early death is generally the price paid for drug abuse and not taking care of yourself.

    She was witty A.F. and an excellent writer. I was 13 when I saw her for the first time on the silver screen. And *wow*. Over the years, I've appreciated what she has done - which is why people that knew her loved her deeply. Leia was just the start.

    1. Re:She was more than Leia by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's as fine line between living your life connected to other people and living your life to please other people. If someone else "lets themselves go" it's none of our damn business, but when we we lose someone due their impaired health it is still sad, and a reminder to take better care of ourselves.

      This is what I taught my kids: everything good you experience through your body; everything you hope to accomplish in life is accomplished through your body. Even if you live by the keyboard your brain is supported by your body and deeply affected by your physical health.

      So don't judge others for their appearance or health, but be firm and compassionate with yourself. Live the longest and healthiest life you can manage.

      --
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  5. I don't understand this... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A lot celebrities died this year. But some folks I know — and what I read by other people on various comment boards — are claiming that 2016 sucked because these people died. Not with a passing sadness but a lingering depression, as if they personally known these people in person. That is weird.

  6. Re:The Character, Princess Leia, Is Iconic by x0ra · · Score: 2, Insightful

    let's face it, this http://rebellioustimes.com/wp-... was the only reason Carry Fisher became a legend.

  7. Re:The Character, Princess Leia, Is Iconic by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thank you. And I'll take this opportunity to clarify further that it's not a "generational thing:" Angelina Jolie: Iconic. Sylvester Stallone: Iconic. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Iconic. Sigourney Weaver: Iconic. Patrick Stewart: Iconic. Carrie Fisher: Talented, a lovely person I am sure, cute as a button at age 19, but not an "iconic actress." Not meant as a dis, just as a point that words mean something...

  8. Organized crime is bad for you by TiggertheMad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cocaine damages the heart. Cocaine use finally caught up to Carrie Fisher. In an era where people are calling for legalization of drugs, you might want to consider that people had motives for banning drugs in the first place.

    High velocity lead is bad for you too. Legalizing drugs takes organized crime out of the equation, and reduces the incentives to run around murdering people for large amounts of cash, drugs, and turf. People will always do dangerous drugs, why not just legalize them so that people who don't want anything to do with drugs can walk down the street without getting shot?

    Banning drugs is just providing price supports for organized crime. If you are pro-drug laws, you are pro-Organized crime, it is as simple as that.

    --

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    1. Re:Organized crime is bad for you by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People still bootleg cigarettes and alcohol.

      Where are the mobs, gangs and cartels based around running cigarettes and alcohol...oh wait there aren't any.

      There is no reason to believe legalizing drugs will reduce crime.

      Prohibition alone makes a bad liar out of you. Why are you even attempting to fuck this chicken?

  9. Obligatory yoda... by mishehu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not."

  10. I don't think so by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The woman was literally a 1-hit wonder

    You only need one thing to be iconic.

    never went on to do anything else that was worthy of note.

    When the one thing is big enough, none of that matters.

    Any number of actresses could have played the part

    Like who exactly? Who would have been as perfect in that role as Carrie Fisher was?

    Yes she was in the right place at the right time, but it's also true that she was the RIGHT PERSON in the right place at the right time. Any other actress would have mangled the part. Her actual person including her background growing up was perfect for that role in a way I'm not sure anyone else was.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:I don't think so by CrashPoint · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Generally your post is spot-on, but this?

      Any other actress would have mangled the part.

      I'm sorry, but no. There are plenty of actresses who could have done as fine a job as Carrie Fisher did, and in each of the alternate universes where one of them got the part, you're thinking of Fisher as one of the also-rans would would have "mangled" the role. The fact that other actresses could have done well does not in any way lessen the fact that she did an excellent job, so let's not dehumanize the lady by putting her up on a pedestal that she probably wouldn't have wanted in any case.

      And really, that's true of every single role we associate with a particular actor. Yes, even that one you're about to bring up as a counterpoint.

  11. Re:Drugs are bad for you by Kaenneth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "marijuana users will lead to early onset dementia, and low IQs."

    Any studies showing a connection?... I'll wait...

  12. Re:Drugs are bad for you by tibit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sweetheart, the motive for banning the drugs was to turn drug users into criminals, not to help anyone.

    --
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  13. Re:Drugs are bad for you by clovis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if a generation of marijuana users will lead to early onset dementia, and low IQs.

    We just had an election for President of the United States that pitted Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, so here's your answer: it's more than just one generation that got addled.

  14. Vera Rubin by 110010001000 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Vera Rubin also died. I'll bet you guys don't even know who she was. Sad.

  15. Re:Equalizer by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now Star Wars fans get to experience what Star Trek fans have been feeling for decades... Your favorite performers in your favorite roles are mortal. Sure, your character might get a Genesis resurrection, or turn into a Force Ghost, but eventually, the actors die. Then the copyright holders get to screw with your favorite memories by remaking your favorite films with completely different actors. It's worse than Life Day.

    It gets worse. Hopefully Disney dosent own the rights to her likeness of we will see her appear in every subsequent film jar jar binks style. In the future, favorite stars will actually be immortal.

  16. Re:RIP To The Toughest Princess Ever by Pascoea · · Score: 4, Insightful

    as do millions of people who just STFU and carry on with life.

    And then there's the million people/year that do something else about it? Given the choices, I think I'd prefer as many people of stature as possible come forward, talk about their issues, help others, etc. Seems a little better than the alternative, doesn't it?

    Prick

  17. Re:Why wait??? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Calling out a racist doesnt make it bigotry. Bigotry is unreasonable and irrational prejudice. Disliking racists is rational, just like disliking rapists and murderers.

    --
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