Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher has died four days after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. She was just 60 years old.
The actress was best-known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy.
Family spokesman Simon Halls confirmed her death in a press release on behalf of Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, WENN.com reports.
Fisher was reportedly in distress on board a flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday. A flight attendant requested assistance from an off-duty EMT who performed CPR on Fisher. The pilot made a harrowing call for emergency responders to meet the plane when it landed at LAX.
Fisher was described as “unresponsive” when she was removed from the plane.
I'm deeply saddened at the news of Carrie's passing. She was a dear friend, whom I greatly respected and admired. The force is dark today!
— Billy Dee Williams (@realbdw) December 27, 2016
Fisher made headlines when she admitted having a 5-month affair with her Stars Wars co-star Harrison Ford, who was 33 at the time.
Some accused her of using Ford to promote her book, The Princess Diarist.
She later admitted she regretted revealing the affair, telling U.S. breakfast show Today, “He’s incredibly private. I feel really bad doing that to him.”
In her books, Fisher was open about her battle with bipolar disorder.
Fisher understood better than most how growing up in a fishbowl can alter reality.
After Michael Jackson died in 2009, Fisher recalled when he invited her to his Holmby Hills mansion to meet his 3 children, who were big Stars Wars fans.
In her 2011 biography, Shockaholic, she wrote: “[Jackson] was able to look in the mirror and essentially say, ‘Yes. This is a face I’m more comfortable presenting to the world than the one I was born with.'”
