With her skimpy copper bikini and plaited hair buns, actress Carrie Fisher turned Star Wars character Princess Leia into sci-fi’s most famous sex symbol.
Fisher appeared in a number of notable films in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Shampoo, The Blues Brothers and Hannah and Her Sisters, but it was 1977 box office smash Star Wars that made her a household name around the world.
The daughter of Hollywood greats Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, she became an international star overnight and was still enjoying the trappings of fame when she died in a Los Angeles hospital, aged 60, days after suffering a heart attack on a flight home from London.
She died on December 27, 2016, turning a chilling prediction she made into reality.
(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
Thirteen years earlier, Fisher said she would be dead in February 2017 and she even wrote the predicted date of her demise on a cardboard cutout of Princess Leia, the character that made her name.
British singer James Blunt was staying at Fisher’s LA mansion at the time of her disturbing prophecy.
Fisher was godmother to his son and the Hollywood star let him write his debut album, Back to Bedlam, at her home.
(Image: ©1977 Lucas Films)
Blunt said at the time that he named his album that because “I lived in a ‘madhouse’ with her.”
He said that he remembered Fisher putting a cardboard cut-out of herself as Princess Leia outside his room.
Eerily, Fisher’s date of birth and date of death had been written on her forehead on the life-size cut-out.
“I’m trying to remember what the date was, because it was around now – and I remember thinking it was too soon,” he told The Sunday Times at the time of her death. “She went out with a bang, as she was back in movies. Maybe it was a great time to go.”
(Image: Getty Images)
The Los Angeles County coroner’s report revealed a mixture of drugs were in Fisher’s system when she went into cardiac arrest on an Los Angeles-bound flight and she later died.
The toxicology report found evidence of cocaine, methadone, ecstasy, alcohol and opiates when she was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Hospital. The test results also suggested exposure to heroin.
Four days after the flight, Fisher went into cardiac arrest but after 90 minutes of attempting to revive her, officials declared the Star Wars icon dead.
(Image: Getty Images)
Her cause of death was listed as ‘sleep apnea with other factors’. In addition to the listed cause of death, heart disease and drug use were also contributory factors.
The autopsy report also noted a tattoo of a moon and stars on Fisher’s right ankle, and “extensive metallic dental restoration”.
Fisher had publicly discussed her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and addiction to cocaine and prescription medication, once saying ‘drugs made me feel more normal’.
(Image: Getty Images)
She gave nicknames to her bipolar moods: Roy (“the wild ride of a mood”) and Pam (“who stands on the shore and sobs”).
Fisher had also admitted that she received regular ECT treatment ‘to blow apart the cement’ in her brain.
She revealed that she was using cocaine during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back and in 1985, she accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills and prescription medication.
In a further tragic twist, Fisher’s 84-year-old mother, Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds (of Sing’ In The Rain fame), died of a stroke the day after her daughter’s untimely death.
Fisher’s actor father, Eddie (whose five wives included Elizabeth Taylor), died in 2010 and he had admitted to addictions to drugs and gambling in his memoir.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
