Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher’s life in the fast lane was packed with stars, affairs, drugs and laughter
CARRIE Fisher’s life story read like the craziest of Hollywood scripts — packed with stars, affairs, drugs and above all a sense of humour.
She even came up with her own madcap obituary, writing: “I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”
The actress was brought up in a Beverly Hills mansion by mum Debbie Reynolds, who starred in 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain.
Carrie’s dad, the singer Eddie Fisher, abandoned her aged two to run off with Elizabeth Taylor.
The following year, Debbie married Harry Karl, owner of a shoe-store chain.
He is said to have blown the family’s savings, forcing Debbie to return to the stage and Carrie to abandon school and appear on Broadway with her mum.
Carrie’s film break came aged 18 in 1975 comedy Shampoo.
The following year she landed the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.
During filming she had a three-month affair with Han Solo actor Harrison Ford.
She later said the fling “was so intense . . . it was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend.”
Ford, married and 14 years older at the time, was reportedly upset that she revealed the affair last month while promoting autobiography The Princess Diarist.
In typical Carrie fashion she replied: “I never said he was bad in bed.”
She believed the original Star Wars script was fantastic, but did not expect many people to agree with her.
By the time the film came out at Christmas 1977 the whole world agreed with her.
She was a global superstar at 20 but would always be typecast as Leia, the heroine with the hairdo that looked like a bun had been glued to each side of her head.
While filming 1980 movie The Blues Brothers she almost died after choking on a Brussels sprout.
Co-star Dan Aykroyd saved her by performing the Heimlich manoeuvre.
He later proposed on set.
Carrie said: “We had rings, we got blood tests, the whole shot. But then I got back together with Paul Simon.”
She and singer Simon were married for less than a year until 1984.
His song Hearts and Bones is about their relationship and they dated again for a time after divorcing.
Later she met talent agent Bryan Lourd and the couple had a daughter Billie, born in 1992.
The relationship ended when he left Carrie for a man.
She has described Lourd as her second husband in interviews but they were never legally married.
In 1980 she played Leia again in The Empire Strikes Back, where she started taking cocaine to help cope with her bipolar disorder.
She called herself “Joan of Narc, patron saint of addicts”.
Carrie claimed therapy had been “my only serious relationship”.
She said of relationships: “Sex is out of my element. I’m much more successful during the cigarette.”
Carrie also said: “Drugs made me feel normal. They contained me.
“Slowly, I realised I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter.”
Her problems did not stop her making third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi in 1983.
In it she made jaws drop by posing as a slave girl in a gold bikini before strangling alien Jabba the Hutt.
In 1985 after months of sobriety, she accidentally overdosed on prescription medication and sleeping pills.
She said: “I’m glad they did it because that was a very powerful piece of evidence that drugs and I had to part ways.”
That incident, and a month in rehab, formed the basis for her 1987 book Postcards from the Edge.
The story also reveals her traumatic upbringing.
As a child, she rarely saw her father. As an adult, they took cocaine together.
As a teenager, Carrie once threw milk in Reynolds’s lap.
Her mum responded by putting baked beans in her girl’s hair.
Postcards from the Edge became a bestseller and was turned into a film starring Meryl Streep.
Carrie was also a highly paid script doctor.
Films that benefited from her uncredited rewrites included Sister Act (1992), Last Action Hero (1993) and The Wedding Singer (1998).
She also worked for George Lucas on later Star Wars scripts.
And last year she reunited with Ford and Luke Skywalker star Mark Hamill in seventh film The Force Awakens. Her daughter Billie appeared sporting Princess Leia “bagels” in tribute to her mum.
Carrie once revealed that she would have turned down playing Leia if she had realised it would bring the same problems that plagued her parents.
Last Friday she suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to LA. Passengers performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
On Christmas Day Debbie Reynolds said Carrie was stable.
Last night Billie announced her mum had died aged 60.
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