Leia is one with the Force

Steeped in Hollywood excess from an early age, she was the product of the four-year marriage between Debbie Reynolds, best known for her role in Singin' In The Rain, and singer Eddie Fisher. The relationship, and the happy home in Beverly Hills, came to an end when Fisher left Reynolds for her close friend, the actress Elizabeth Taylor.

With the release of Star Wars in 1977, Fisher was catapulted into superstardom. She reprised her role in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and then in Return of the Jedi in 1983, where she shed her bun hairdo for a long hair and a gold bikini, an image that adorned the walls of many teenagers in the world.

The early 1980s were marked by problems with alcohol, drugs and depression for Fisher, who appeared in a number of critical flops, including Under the Rainbow (1981) and Hollywood Vice Squad (1986). She was widely praised for her performance in the hit 1989 comedy When Harry Met Sally, but began to turn her back on acting in favor of writing. She became known for her searingly honest semi-autobiographical writing, including her best-selling debut Postcards from the Edge, which she turned into a film of the same name in 1990 starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

A talented screenwriter, Fisher has revised numerous scripts, including Sister Act (1992), Outbreak (1995) and The Wedding Singer (1998). She gave various interviews over the years about her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and addiction to prescription drugs and cocaine, which she admitted using on the set of The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Asked by Vanity Fair in 2006 how she persuaded Star Wars director George Lucas to give her the part of Princess Leia, she said: "I slept with some nerd. I hope it was George." She "took too many drugs to remember" who it was, she added. She also discussed being treated with electroconvulsive therapy, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, to trigger brief seizures and treat depression.

In her first agony aunt column for the British Guardian newspaper in June, the actress promised to "provide solicited advice, based on a life filled with pratfalls and accidents." Fisher told her readers that the addictions, heartbreak and mental illness she had endured amounted to a "fair share of challenging and unhappy experiences." "Over time, I've paid attention, taken notes and forgotten easily half of everything I've gone through. But I'll rifle through the half I recall and lay it at your feet."

Her recently-released memoir The Princess Diarist is based on journals she kept while filming the "Star Wars" trilogy. The memoir made headlines because of a section in which Fisher admits a three-month affair with co-star Harrison Ford while filming Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope in 1976. "Carrie was one-of-a-kind -- brilliant, original. Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life bravely... We will all miss her," Ford said in a statement.

Fisher was briefly married to singer/songwriter Paul Simon in the 1980s. Her daughter Billie, also an actress, comes from her relationship with talent agent Bryan Lourd. The eighth episode of the main Star Wars series -- due for release in December next year -- wrapped filming in July, according to Variety magazine, and will probably be her last big-screen appearance. She was due to appear in 2017 fantasy adventure Wonderwell, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), although the status of the shoot was not immediately clear and it has no publicly announced release date.

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One of my favourite Princess Leia parts was her voice recording a message for Obi Wan Kenobi (in A New Hope) before the stormtroopers came looking for her – Charmaine De Souza Fernandes, Caranzalem