With her golden ensemble and bun hairstyle, Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher in Star Wars (1977) was every man’s dream girl. Even though it was Harrison Ford who probably benefited the most from the Star Wars movies, the Princess Leia character lingered on in every mind as the firebrand leader who kept the pilot of a smuggling spacecraft in check. The role was so iconic that Carrie Fisher carried Princess Leia with her throughout her subsequent career.
Born in Beverly Hills to Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher has known glamour right from childhood. She was only two years old when her singer father left her mother and married Elizabeth Taylor.
Carrie Fisher joined her mother in her shows at the age of twelve and starred in the hit Broadway show Irene. She went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and won her first film role in Shampoo (1975). In the meantime, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder or manic depression. However, in another two years she starred in George Lucas’s Star Wars, which became a huge success and made her a star overnight. Dolls of the princess were sold across America. She also appeared in the role on TV for Star Wars Holiday Special.
Battling with drug and alcohol abuse, Fisher had to enter rehabilitation. Later, using her experience of drug overdose, she wrote a book: Postcards from the Edge. It became a bestseller and was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep.
Fisher continued taking supporting roles in movies such as When Harry Met Sally (1989), Austin Powers (1997) and The Man with One Red Shoe (1985). She also continued with her writing and published other books including Surrender the Pink, Delusions of Grandma and The Best Awful: A Novel. She also wrote an introduction to a book entitled Hollywood Moms.
Being a “script doctor” is another feather in Fisher’s cap. She has not only co-written television sitcoms but also reworked screenplays like Spielberg’s Hook (1991) and other films such as Sister Act (1992), Milk Money (1994) and Lethal Weapon 3 (1992). Her expertise with scripts resulted in her being a judge on Fox’s On the Lot.
Carrie Fisher married musician Paul Simon and has appeared in one of his music videos. (Much before this, she also featured as Ringo Starr’s love interest in the song You’re Sixteen ). Unfortunately her marriage to Paul didn’t last and they divorced a year later. She later had a relationship with Bryan Lourd and the pair have a daughter. Since they separated, Fisher has been single.
Fisher calls herself an “enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God.”
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