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Carrie Fisher

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Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher at the Star Wars Celebration IV (2007)
Born
Carrie Frances Fisher
Years active1975 – present

Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress, screenwriter and novelist. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Biography

Early life

Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds; her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia.[1] Her younger brother is Todd Fisher and her half-sisters are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is actress Connie Stevens.

When Fisher was two, 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.

Career

1970s

Carrie Fisher (right) with Steven Spielberg in 1978

Soon after, Fisher enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, which she attended for 18 months. She made her film debut in the Columbia comedy Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant and Jack Warden.

In 1977, Fisher starred as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' sci-fi film Star Wars opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

The huge success of Star Wars made her internationally famous. The character of Princess Leia became a merchandising triumph; there were small plastic action figures of the Princess in toy stores across the United States. 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 included the second performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as their popular Blues Brothers characters.

Fisher appeared in the music video for Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen" as the love interest in 1978 on Ringo's TV special of that year.[2][3]

1980s

File:Leiabikini.jpg
Fisher, as Princess Leia, wearing the metal bikini seen in Return of the Jedi.

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 in Censored Scenes From King Kong in 1980. That year, she appeared again as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. She made her third and final appearance as Leia in the series in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. 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.[citation needed] She also was a replacement in the Broadway production of Agnes of God (1982).

In 1987, Fisher published her first novel, Postcards from the Edge. The book was semi-autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized and satirized real life events such as her drug addiction of the late 1970s.[4] It became a bestseller, and she received the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Fisher played a major supporting role in When Harry Met Sally in 1989. In 1989, she also played opposite of Tom Hanks as his wife in The Burbs.

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 also appeared in the movie Drop Dead Fred in 1991. In 1997, Fisher appeared as a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. She is one of the few actors to star in movies with both John and Jim Belushi, later appearing with the latter in the movie The Man with One Red Shoe. During the 1990s Fisher also published the novels Surrender the Pink (1991) and Delusions of Grandma (1993).

2000s

In the movie Scream 3 (2000), Fisher played an actress mistaken for Carrie Fisher. ("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, Fisher appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. This was the first time she took part in a movie together with Mark Hamill since the original Star Wars trilogy (although neither actor realized this until the premiere).

She also 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' character, an actress, that she was in an alcoholic blackout when she married the actress' husband, "Freddy."

Besides acting and writing original works, Fisher is one of the best-known script doctors in Hollywood, working on the screenplays of other writers. She has done uncredited polishes on movies starting with Steven Spielberg's Hook and continuing today.[citation needed] Her expertise in this area is why she was interviewed for the screenwriting documentary Dreams on Spec in 2007.

Fisher also plays Peter Griffin's boss on the animated sitcom Family Guy and appeared in a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms (2001) for which she wrote the introduction.

Fisher published a Suzanne Vale sequel novel, The Best Awful There Is in 2004. Since Postcards from the Edge, Vale has married, become a parent, and divorced. She also is undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder but is not entirely comfortable with her "normal" self.[citation needed]

Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play "Wishful Drinking" at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from November 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007.[5] Her show is currently playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theater through March, 2008[6].

She is a full-time judge on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality TV series On the Lot.

Fisher recently joined Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne on Saturday evenings for The Essentials with informative and entertaining conversation on Hollywoods best films.

She guest-starred in the episode titled "Sex and Another City" from season 3 of Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker. This episode also featured Vince Vaughn in a guest role.

On October 25, 2007, Carrie guest starred on 30 Rock for the "Rosemary's Baby" Episode 4 of Season 2. She starred as Rosemary Howard. Her last line in the show was a spoof from Star Wars: "Help me Liz Lemon, You're my only hope!".

Personal life

Fisher was married to musician Paul Simon and was in a relationship with him for several years afterward. During their marriage, she appeared in Simon's music video for the track "Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War". She is referenced in many of Simon's songs, including "Hearts and Bones", "Graceland", "She Moves On", and "Allergies".

Subsequently, she had a relationship with Creative Artists Agency 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. She was linked for a time to Senator Christopher Dodd and was briefly 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.

Fisher has described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God."[7]

Filmography

Upcoming

Television Work

Bibliography

Novels

Screenplays

Play

  • Wishful Drinking, 2006

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Carrie Fisher.
  1. ^ Fisher, JewishAZ.
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76O6tuJPe3w
  3. ^ http://www.ringostarr.com/biography.php
  4. ^ Copyright page states the book was originally published in hardcover in 1987.
  5. ^ Waxman, Sharon (2006-11-15). "Comedic Postscripts From the Edge". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  6. ^ http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0708/2121.asp
  7. ^ http://talentdevelop.com/spirituality2.html
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