Carrie Francis Fisher passed away December 27th, 2016 from complications due to cardiac arrest. She was 60 years old, and she was an American Icon. Born into Hollywood royalty, Fisher worked many years in Hollywood as an actress, writer, and producer. She also wrote several books which have been adapted into film and television. She began writing at age twelve, keeping a journal. Not a diary like one would expect, but more just writing about her life and experiences. Her most famous work, Postcards from the Edge, was a heartfelt semi-autobiographical depiction of her own drug abuse and eventual rehab experiences.
Fisher also worked, often uncredited, in Hollywood as a script doctor, writing for movies in the Lethal Weapon series, Outbreak, and The Wedding Singer among others. As an actress, Fisher stared in many timeless films such as Shampoo, The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally …, Drop Dead Fred, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and starred as herself in Wishful Drinking and Maps to the Stars.
Earlier this year, Harvard College awarded Fisher the Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism for her brutal honesty and openness regarding her mental health and well-being. Fisher was a recovering drug-addict who faced her chemical dependency with an outspokenness rarely scene with celebrities.
It is perhaps her role as Princess Leia and later as General Leia Organa that best captured our imagination with Carrie Fisher. Starring in the first three Star Wars films, as well as The Force Awakens, Fisher had just completed filming her scenes for Star Wars: Episode VIII before her death. Fisher was captivating and charismatic, fearless in her depiction of strong women on the screen, as this was how she was in life. Though her time here was much too brief, she touched the souls of millions of people with her work, and now she will remain in our hearts forever, one with the Force.
Rest in peace, Carrie.
BOB PASTORELLA
