Raised by her single mother under intense public scrutiny, Fisher decided to join the family business, as she knew no other reality. When Fisher was two years old and her brother Todd an infant, her father left her mother for a recently widowed Elizabeth Taylor, culminating in the biggest Hollywood love triangle dustup of the 1950s. 21, 1956 in Beverly Hills, CA to 'America's Sweethearts' of the era, actress Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher, the future star was Hollywood royalty long before she donned the infamous slave girl outfit years later.

Fisher's death on December 27, 2016, following a massive heart attack suffered on a Los Angeles-bound flight several days earlier, was mourned by friends, fans and industry peers across the globe.īorn Oct. In 2006, the self-deprecating Fisher took to the stage to poke fun at her addictions in the one-woman show, 'Wishful Drinking.' Though she continued to act, Fisher earned critical acclaim and industry respect for her work as an author and sought-after script doctor, all while embracing the character she once tried to avoid, eventually reprising Leia as a defiant, strong older woman in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (2015). Equally discordant were her romantic affairs, which included a brief dalliance with Dan Aykroyd and a longtime relationship with singer Paul Simon, whom she married in 1983. Meanwhile, Fisher secretly struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as bipolar disorder, which she first revealed with the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge (1987), which was adapted into a 1990 film starring Meryl Streep. She tried to escape the role with memorable turns in 'The Blues Brothers' (1980) and 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989), but was unable to break free. With a Danish pastry hairdo and white robes, Fisher's Leia endeared herself to generations of obsessive fans who flocked to the sequels 'The Empire Strikes Back' (1980) and 'Return of the Jedi' (1983). No stranger to scandal herself later in life, Fisher was best known as Princess Leia in 'Star Wars' (1977), one of the biggest box office hits of all time. A child of Hollywood, Carrie Fisher grew up in the shadow of scandal as the daughter of Eddie Fisher, who left her mother Debbie Reynolds for best friend Elizabeth Taylor.

Girls in Trouble by Linda Michaels