carrie fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars has tragically passed away aged 60. The American actress was taken to hospital in Los Angeles after falling ill on a flight from London. She died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 27th December only two days after Christmas Day and two days after the death of Wham star George Michael.
Family statement
Simon Halls, the spokesman for Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd released a statement on the grieving daughter's behalf.
"It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55am this morning.
She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers."
Mother Debbie Reynolds released a small statement on her Facebook page.
"Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter. I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop."
Star Wars co-stars Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford have always broken their silence on death of their colleague. Ford said Fisher "lived her life bravely" and described her as "one-of-a-kind" whilst Hamill tweeted "No words #devastated".
Star Wars
Carrie Fisher is known worldwide as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise and reprised her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first of Disney's trilogy.
It is unknown as of yet how Fisher's death will impact the upcoming films, with Lucasfilm confirming that Carrie Fisher has completed her work on the yet untitled next instalment of the franchise. Unless Princess Leia has been killed off joining Han Solo has a casualty of the new triolgy, her character will have to endure an off-screen death, perhaps the final film will have to be re-written to accomodate the tragedy of her death.The original Star Wars, released in 1977 transformed Fisher into a pop culture legend.
Revealing to the Daily Mail back in 2011, that she didn't expect George Lucas' production to become as popular as it did.
"It exploded across the firmament of pop culture, taking all of us along with it. It tricked me into becoming a star all on my own."
Of course Star Wars is not her only appearance in show business with Fisher also voicing Angela in the animated sitcom Family Guy.
Also appearing in When Harry met Sally and working on scripts for films such as Sister Act. She was also a successful writer publishing novels and memoirs with her last, The Princess Diarist, containing details of a relationship between herself and co-star Harrison Ford in 1976. The world has clearly lost an extremely talented woman who impacted lives across the globe and will be dearly missed.
