Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, screenwriter and novelist. She played Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Carrie Fisher was born inOctober 21, 1956 in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds; her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Her younger brother is Todd Fisher. Her half-sisters are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is actress Connie Stevens.

When Carrie Fisher was two years old, her parents divorced and her father married actress Elizabeth Taylor. The following year, her mother married shoe store chain owner Harry Karl. It was assumed from an early age that Fisher would go into the family business.

She began appearing with her mother in Las Vegas at age 12. She attended Beverly Hills High School, but left to join her mother on the road. She appeared as a debutante and singer in the hit Broadway revival Irene (1973) starring her mother.

1970s

Soon after, she enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, which she attended for 18 months. Her first movie appearance was in the Columbia comedy Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant, and Jack Warden.

In 1977, Carrie Fisher starred as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas's sci-fi classic Star Wars opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, with Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness.

The huge success of Star Wars made her internationally famous. The character of Princess Leia became a merchandising triumph; there were small plastic dolls of the Princess in toy stores across the United States. During this time, in the late 1970s, Fisher began doing various drugs.

She appeared as Princess Leia in the 1978 made-for-TV movie, The Star Wars Holiday Special. Fisher hosted the Saturday Night Live episode that contained the first polished performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as their popular Blues Brothers characters, Joliet Jake (Belushi) and Elwood (Aykroyd).

1980s

Fisher later appeared in The Blues Brothers movie in a cameo role as Joliet Jake's vengeful ex-lover, listed in the credits as "Mystery Woman." She appeared on Broadway as Iris in Censored Scenes From King Kong (1980).

She appeared again as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

She made her fourth and final Star Wars appearance in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983).

After her appearance wearing a "Golden Metal Bikini" or "Slave girl" outfit that almost immediately rose to pop culture icon status, Fisher became a sex symbol for a short period. She was also a replacement in the Broadway play Agnes of God (1982).

Fisher's novel, Postcards from the Edge, which was semi-autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized events obviously from her real life, such as her drug addiction of the late 1970s, was published in 1987. It became a bestseller and she received the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel.

1990s

In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a movie version of Postcards from the Edge, adapted for the screen by Fisher and starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid. She is one of the few actors to star in movies with both John and Jim Belushi, later appearing with Jim in the movie The Man with One Red Shoe.

Her other novels include Surrender the Pink (1991), Delusions of Grandma (1993), and The Best Awful There Is (2004). It was later renamed simply The Best Awful.

2000s

Carrie Fisher also appeared in a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms (2001) for which she also wrote the introduction. In the movie Scream 3 (2000), Fisher's character, Bianca Burnette, is mistaken for Carrie Fisher.

Carrie Fisher pokes fun at herself with the line, "Yeah, I was up for the part of Princess Leia. But who gets it? The girl who slept with George Lucas!" Director's commentary on the Scream 3 DVD suggests that the sequence was in fact penned by Fisher herself.

In 2001, CarrieFisher appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as the nun in the car. She co-wrote the TV comedy movie These Old Broads (2001), of which she was also co-executive producer. It starred her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, and Shirley MacLaine.

In this, Taylor's character, an agent, explains to Reynolds's character, an actress, that she was in a drunken blackout when she married the actress's husband, "Freddy." Besides acting and writing, Fisher also works as a script doctor on the screenplays of other writers. Fisher also plays Peter Griffin's boss on the animated sitcom Family Guy.

Carrie Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play "Wishful Drinking" at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, CA from November 7, 2006 to January 14, 2007.

Personal life

Carrie Fisher was married to musician Paul Simon (married 1983-divorce 1984, during which time she had a miscarriage), and was in a relationship with him for several years afterward. Subsequently, she had a relationship with CAA principal and agent Bryan Lourd. They had one child together, Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992). The couple's relationship ended when Lourd left her for a man. For a brief time she was engaged to Dan Aykroyd.

In an interview on public radio in 2005, Fisher joked that she was afraid if she ever became senile she might begin to slip back into her Princess Leia character. Fisher has publicly discussed her problems with drugs, her battles with bipolar disorder, and overcoming an addiction to prescription medication, most notably on ABC TV's 20/20.

On February 26, 2005, 42-year-old Republican Party media adviser R. Gregory Stevens was found dead in a guest room at Fisher's home. She stated that he was a longtime friend and often stayed with her.

Fisher describes herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God".

On November 15, 2006, Fisher was interviewed by the New York Times about her new one-woman show Wishful Drinking.
 

Filmography

• Shampoo (1975)
• Star Wars (1977)
• Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Under the Rainbow (1981)
• Return of the Jedi (1983)
• Garbo Talks (1984)
• The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
• Hollywood Vice Squad (1986)
• The Time Guardian (1987)
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
• Appointment with Death (1988)
• She's Back (1989)
• The 'Burbs (1989)
• Loverboy (1989)
• When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
• Sweet Revenge (1990)
• Sibling Rivalry (1990)
• Drop Dead Fred (1991)
• Soapdish (1991)
• Hook (1991)
• This Is My Life (1992)
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
• Return of the Ewok (1999) (short subject) (filmed in 1983)
• Scream 3 (2000)
• Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000) (Cameo)
• Heartbreakers (2001)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
• Wonderland (2003)
• Stateside (2004)
• The Aristocrats (2005) (documentary)
• Undiscovered (2005)
• Dreams on Spec (2006) (documentary)
• Cougar Club (2006)
• Fanboys (2007)
• Suffering Man's Charity (2007)
• E-Girl (2007)