On December 27, 2016, Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher passed away at 60 after suffering an
in-flight cardiac emergency four days prior.
For fans around the world, Fisher's death was a devastating blow, made even worse by
the fact that her mother Debbie Reynolds died the very next day.
Fisher was more than just a fictional sci-fi princess; she inspired millions with her talent,
brilliance, humor, and compassion.
Let's take a look back at her life and some of the many reasons she came to be loved by
so many.
Born famous and funny
Fisher was the firstborn child of a Hollywood power-couple: actress Debbie Reynolds and
singer Eddie Fisher.
There was so much public interest in their relationship that Carrie made the front page
of the Los Angeles Times before she was born.
As a child growing up in the spotlight, she turned to books to cope with her strange reality,
which was made even more buzzy by the fact that her father left her mother for their
family friend Elizabeth Taylor.
Carrie entered the family business at age 13, joining her mother's nightclub act and
later appearing on-stage alongside Reynolds in the Broadway revival of Irene.
Soon after, Carrie made her film debut in Shampoo and proved that she was one to watch
from the start.
Lunch with monsters
During the casting process for Star Wars, Fisher was up against some heavy-hitting Hollywood
actresses for the part of Princess Leia, including Jodie Foster and Amy Irving.
But as her resurfaced audition footage showed, Fisher completely nailed her try-out for the
part.
"Our only hope is to destroy it before it destroys us.
Hiding is useless now."
Despite her stellar audition, though, Fisher wasn't convinced she'd won the role, especially
when she didn't hear back for weeks.
Sizing up the situation with her typical aplomb, Fisher later recalled in The Making of Star
Wars, "I thought, well, I'm not going to get to have lunch with monsters."
Thankfully, Lucas took a chance on Fisher, and the rest is history.
'Drowned in moonlight'
Over the years, Fisher became known for her sense of humor, and she often used her dry
wit to poke fun at life's absurdities.
As she once phrased her entertainment mantra, "If it's not funny, then it's just true and
that's unacceptable, so it better be funny."
In keeping with her philosophy of humor, her one-woman show Wishful Drinking included a
slew of hilarious anecdotes, not the least of which was this moment when she rolled out
a sexualized, life-size Princess Leia figure — which she simply called "a Princess Leia
sex doll" — and revealed the surprising benefit to being cast in plastic.
"Because if ever anyone from the audience screams out go f--- yourself Carrie.
I can give it a whirl!"
The show, which was later adapted into memoir, also included a joke about how George Lucas
wouldn't let her wear a bra under Leia's famed white dress because of the fear that she'd
be strangled by it in the weightlessness of space.
Because, as everyone knows, they filmed Star Wars in space, and not on a soundstage in
England.
The conversation inspired Fisher to write her own obituary, saying:
"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."
'Hearts and Bones'
Fisher would be the first to tell you she's "not good at relationships."
In her 2016 memoir, The Princess Diarist, she admitted to having an "intense" affair
with her Star Wars costar Harrison Ford on the set of the first Star Wars film.
Meanwhile her passionate romance and short marriage to Paul Simon ended in divorce, but
the pair continued to date off-and-on for a decade after their marriage ended.
She is known to have inspired many of his most memorable songs, including "Graceland,"
"Hearts and Bones," "Allergies," and "She Moves On."
During one of the "off" periods in her relationship with Simon, Fisher dated and was briefly engaged
to co-star Dan Aykroyd while filming The Blues Brothers.
She later became involved with Hollywood talent agent Bryan Lourd, who became father to Fisher's
only child, Billie Lourd, who paid tribute to her mother's famed role with her earmuffs
in Scream Queens and briefly appeared with her mom in The Force Awakens.
Off-screen talents
In addition to her acting and comedy skills, Fisher was also a talented singer.
"A day of harmony."
But her real triple threat status came from her writing skills.
Her long, distinguished writing career proved that the pen is mightier than the lightsaber.
She once said she considered herself "a wordsmith" and that she got lost in her characters.
She turned to writing as a source of repose during some difficult times, and her first
novel, 1987's Postcards from the Edge, was essentially an autobiographical account of
Fisher's nearly lethal drug overdose and subsequent stay in rehab from two years before.
She later adapted the book into a screenplay, which became a highly successful movie of
the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Shirley Maclaine.
She's since written a series of other books and was also a top script doctor in Hollywood,
lending clutch rewrites to screenplays for Sister Act, The Wedding Singer, and even the
Star Wars prequels, to name a few.
Bipolar and proud
For many of her fans, Fisher's refreshing honesty and openness about her diagnosis and
treatments for bipolar disorder gave them the courage to cope with their own mental
health issues and help destigmatize mental illness.
In Wishful Drinking, she wrote:
"In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls.
At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and
even more courage, so if you're living with this illness and functioning at all, it's
something to be proud of, not ashamed of."
'Our Princess'
Just like for a lot of Star Wars fans, Fisher never quite grew weary of her iconic fictional
counterpart, calling her experience as Princess Leia and subsequent fame for the portrayal
an "adventure."
She even poked fun at her own icon status in a scene-stealing cameo in Scream 3.
"Are you?"
"No."
"But you look just like."
"Like her?
I've been hearing it all my life."
"It's uncanny…"
"I was up for Princess Leia.
I was this close.
So who gets it?
The one who sleeps with George Lucas."
Our Princess will be remembered not just for her turn as Leia, but for her strength, brass,
and wit.
She may have been a damsel, but she could—and did—deal with her distress on her own.
"I don't like Darth.
And I don't mind talking about it either.
I think he's a bad guy, and I'm probably do my best to shoot him next time."
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