Just heartbreaking: Carrie Fisher, Hollywood’s heart and soul, has died at age 60 several days after a heart attack aboard a flight from London to Los Angeles.
No real word from her family since she was taken from the plane to UCLA Medical Center was not a good omen. A fellow seat passenger’s observation that Fisher wasn’t breathing– plus her being placed on a ventilator when got to the hospital– all of that spelled doom.
Carrie’s death really is heartbreaking for her family– mother Debbie Reynolds, brother Todd Fisher, half sisters Joely and Tricia Lee Fisher, her daughter Billie Lourd. But it’s also mind blowing for her friends– and there are legions and legions of them — and her millions of fans.
Carrie’s status as a daughter of Hollywood royalty– Reynolds and late singer Eddie Fisher– plus her own royalty– she’s gone from Princess Leia to General Leia in “Star Wars,” the most successful movie series of all time, has been huge. She’s a trailblazer for girls and young women. She’s been a guiding light as a Hollywood iconoclast.
And she’s been hilarious. Her take on everything made her the wiser, warmer version of Fran Lebowitz or Dorothy Parker. She was jaundiced but in the best way. She had to fight to give herself a space in the world of celebrity, and did it with grace even when she was falling down.
I hope the drug part of her life doesn’t become the emphasis of her passing. She was a very gifted writer and humorist, author of many best sellers and script doctor for many movies. Carrie knew innately what was funny, and how humor worked. I used to laugh out loud– in the right way– reading “Surrender the Pink” or “Postcards from the Edge.”
Everyone will say they were her friend, but Carrie’s real friends were people like Penny Marshall and Buck Henry. Her parties were legendary. Everyone wanted to be her friend.
And the irony is that she was at the top of her game, with “Rogue One” hinging on her, and Star Wars Chapter 8 in the can, and “Princess Diarist” on the best seller lists, her dog Gary a cult hero, and daughter Billie launched as an actress.
What a terrible, terrible day at the end of a terrible, terrible year.
