Carrie Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress and writer.
She was born Carrie Frances Fisher in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of Jewish singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. Her younger brother is Todd Fisher. Her half-sisters are actress Joely Fisher and actress Tricia Leigh Fisher , whose mother is actress Connie Stevens.
When she 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.
Carrie Fisher attended Beverly Hills High School and then Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Her first movie appearance was in Shampoo (1975). In 1977, she played Princess Leia in Star Wars. It was a huge success and made her famous in her own right. In a recent interview on public radio she expressed some regret that she was known overwhelmingly for her role as Princess Leia, and joked that she was afraid that if she became senile she may begin to slip back into character.
Fisher's novel Postcards From the Edge, which was autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized things obviously from her real-life, was published in 1987. It became a sensational bestseller and she won the Los Angeles Pen Award for best first novel.
In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a movie version of Postcards From the Edge, which was adapted for the screen by Fisher and starred Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine and Dennis Quaid.
Fisher was married to musician Paul Simon (1983-1984).
She is the mother of Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992), whose father is CAA principal and agent, Bryan Lourd. The couple's relationship ended when Lourd left Fisher for another man.
Her other novels include Surrender the Pink (1991), Delusions of Grandma (1993), Hollywood Moms (2001) and The Best Awful There Is (2004).
In 2001, she co-wrote the TV comedy movie These Old Broads, which she was also co-executive producer of, starring her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Shirley MacLaine. In this, Taylor's character, an agent, explains to Reynolds' character, an actress, that she was in a blackout when she married the actress' husband, "Freddy."
Besides acting and writing, Carrie Fisher works as a "script doctor" on the screenplays of other writers.
On February 26, 2005 42-year-old GOP media adviser R. Gregory Stevens was found dead in a guest room at Fisher's Beverly Hills, California home. Fisher stated that he was a longtime friend and often stayed with her. An autopsy revealed that Stevens died from an overdose of cocaine and OxyContin. [1]
Filmography
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 05:24:02
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
