Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher's personal life was turbulent all through. She was briefly engaged to Dan Aykroyd in 1980 before she broke up with the same to tie the knot with Paul Simon in 1983. The marriage lasted for exactly eleven months after which they parted ways.

Post-divorce, she briefly dated Simon yet again before being romantically involved with Creative Artists Agency principal and casting agent Bryan Lourd. Together, they were blessed with a child, Billie Catherine Lourd. This relationship too did not last long. She shared a cordial relationship with James Blunt

Despite being raised as a Protestant by her mother, she is an enthusiastic agnostic who occasionally attends Jewish services.

Carrie Fisher was born to Russian immigrant father Eddie Fisher and Scottish-Irish-English mother Debbie Reynolds in Beverly Hills, California. While her father was a Jewish by belief and a singer by profession, her mother belonged to the Protestant faith and worked as an actress. She has a younger brother and two half-sisters.

After her parents separated when she was two, she was raised by her mother and step-father Harry Karl. It was natural for young Carrie to walk into her mother’s footsteps and she eventually started to make appearances with her mother in Las Vegas at the age of twelve.

Academically, she attained her formal education from Beverly Hills High School but dropped out of the same to accompany her mother on a road trip. She made her debut as a singer in the hit Broadway revival ‘Irene’, starring her mother in 1973. Same year, she took up an 18 months course at the London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.

In 1975, she made her official big screen debut with the Columbia comedy, ‘Shampoo’. She was starred alongwith Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn.

Two years later, she made her breakthrough with the science fiction tale, ‘Star Wars’, a George Lucas film. In it, she played the character of Princess Leia Organa. The movie, against much reservations and qualms, was a major commercial and critical phenomenon.

Post the success of the first of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, she attained superstardom and soon became a household name in the country. Small petite toy figures of Princess Leia were available for sale across the toy stores across the United States.

In 1978, she made a couple of appearances for television, starting with Ringo Starr’s TV special, ‘Ringo’, ABC-TV film, ‘Leave Yesterday Behind’ and made-for-TV film, ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’, for which she revived her role of Princess Leia.

The year of 1980 witnessed her reprise the role of Princess Leia for Star Wars franchise’s equally successful film, ‘The Empires Strike Back’. Additionally, she was seen in two Broadway productions ‘Censored Scenes from King Kong’ and ‘Agnes of God’ two years later.

Her magnum opus work was the Star Wars franchise which catapulted her status as the most visible actress of her generation making her an overnight superstar. Right from the first film, ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’, to its last film, ‘Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi’, the trilogy did a magnificent business at the box office. What’s more, apart from collections at the box office, she became a popular face on the themed merchandising available in the market, as her character was seen on everything from posters and plastic dolls to duvet covers and fluffy slippers.