Carrie Fisher died this morning, several days after suffering a very public heart attack while on a plane from London. She was obviously best known for playing Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, returning to the franchise in The Force Awakens as General Leia Organa.
But there was a lot more to her than this iconic character. In addition to her roles in numerous other films, she was a bestselling novelist, best known for Postcards from the Edge and Surrender the Pink (both of which I’d highly recommend); her autobiographical one-woman Broadway show Wishful Drinking also turned into a book, and her most recent memoir, The Princess Diarist, came out this past spring. She was also much in demand as a Hollywood script doctor.
She was always outspoken and didn’t put up with bullshit.
In short, she was pretty much a badass.
I’m opening up this thread for anyone who wants to talk about Fisher or any of the other amazing people that 2016 took from us — among them Prince, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, and, just a few days ago, George Michael.
Here are some Tweets about Fisher I thought were fitting.
Everyone is sharing pictures of Fisher when she was young, but let me show you the Leia that was the most important to me: General Organa pic.twitter.com/xXFETlkZ8Y
— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) December 27, 2016
Theriault followed this up with a bunch of Tweets explaining just why she felt this way, collected into a Storify here.
https://twitter.com/brianlabelle/status/813827814176727041
2016 pic.twitter.com/WhPZePlimY
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/osheamobile/status/813809040518168576
2016 has been a hell of a year, obviously not in a good way.
And Alan Rickman! 🙁
That’s the one that gutted me most until Carrie Fisher.
I was going to share that Sarah Kendzior tweet here myself. Everything she posts is incredible.
Yet another reason to admire Carrie Fisher (as if we needed more): she tried, constantly, to de-stigmatise mental illness and addiction, and not simply for celebrities.
I’m now going to sit in a corner and quietly chant “pls don’t take Nick Cave, pls don’t take Nick Cave”. I’m generally very non-superstitious but 2016 has me thoroughly creeped out.
She was the first princess I knew of outside of story books. Star Wars was released a year after my birth, but my parents recorded it from tv when it came out on free to air (in Australia) and I can’t think of a better princess to have had as a role model.
Very sad for her family, especially her daughter Billie Lourd and her mum Debbie – no parent wants to bury their child.
Thanks for providing this space David.
May the Force be with her, always.
—–‘——@
(I also posted this to social media.)
Princess Leia was my heroine when I was a teen just tasting life.
Carrie Fisher became my heroine as she overcame addiction, bravely owned her struggles with mental illness, and fearlessly spoke profane, salty, hilarious truth.
And General Organa modeled the courageous and resilient heroine that I want to be for the rest of my life.
R.I.P. Carrie Fisher. You’ve left us far too soon.
I’ve been devastated all evening.
None of the others hurt. OK, Rickman a little. This one hurts
I told Mr. Parasol, and his reaction was, “But she was stable just the other day!” I knew what he meant. I hated telling him “stable” isn’t the same as improving.
Leia Organa was my first feminist role model.
The past couple of days I’ve been having a really hard time processing everything to do with Trump (that’s why I haven’t been posting), and now I’m crying every time I open a Web browser because the lovely Carrie Fisher is being talked about everywhere. I’m still not over Rickman, either, but this one hurts so much more. And honestly these two are the first celebrity deaths that truly hurt for me.
You were a legend, Carrie. You taught me a lot about dealing with negativity on twitter and about how unimportant our bodies are (“My body is my brain bag, it hauls me around to those places & in front of faces where theres something to say or see”). I won’t forget you. <3
@Axecalibur:
I feel the same way. I loved her in all of the roles I’ve seen her play, and I was looking forward to seeing more of her as General Leia. I even told Captain Marsh “I don’t want her to die” just yesterday. So disappointed.
Tomorrow I have to play a funeral for someone I never met.
Wish I’d found out afterwards.
I’m going to go curl up with Postcards on the Edge. I must have read it in high school. I’ve sold a lot of the old ones. I was happy to find it still there.
Edit: FROM….I’m the one on the edge!
We lost Patty Duke this year as well. Another tough woman who fought to destigmatize mental illness.
This one definitely hit me hard too. I really admired her responses to all the asshats who criticized her for daring to visibly age.
I also love that she took her dog Gary Fisher to the red carpet with her and he became a star too.
I have never hated a measurement of time more than I hate the entire Gregorian year of 2016.
The tweet that really cuts me up the most is from her dog, Gary. Somehow it reminds me of Fry’s dog, Seymour.
Openly sobbing can’t even begin to describe the emotional wreck I am. David Bowie dying at the beginning of the year really set the emotional tone for the whole year. Now we lost Carrie Fisher, a huge role model to girls and advocate for normalizing mental illness. I’m so ready for this year to be over.
Carrie Fisher’s passing is the one that hurts the most for me too, this year. I went with my husband to work today (I’m off for the week, haha) to meet some of his coworkers and hang out.
I had to stop browsing Facebook, because all the memories, pictures, and references to her were bringing tears and I didn’t feel like bawling in the middle of an open office.
Sigh. Honestly, I think she got better as she got older. Seeing her back in the spotlight again for the new Star Wars movies and all of her comments about age, mental health, etc. has been great. She’s on point on all of it.
?
Like Princess Leia, the character she played, Carrie Fisher was a brave woman.
I saw the first Star Wars when I lived in Los Angeles. Often movies hit the theaters in LA before they’ve been reviewed. Reviews might come two weeks later.
So I saw Star Wars on a co-worker’s recommendation. Wow! Princess Leia was under siege but remained determined and true to her people and herself. Which is a pretty good description of Carrie Fisher too — under siege from mental illness but true to the human race and herself.
RIP, Carrie.
ETA: K O’Shea’s comment was kickass!
This was the first death this year that actively depressed me.
I was so sure she’d pull through.
She was really young and she seemed to be doing really well until the heart attack.
I’m really shocked.
(And I don’t want them just writing her out of Episode 8 or using more of that creepy CGI from Rogue One.)
2016 just had to take another from us didn’t it? Four days left in the fucking year, and it’s already taken another.
I’m honestly just depressed over the whole thing. This year was shitty. Personally, it could have been worse for me, but overall it’s just…shit.
Mattie,
I did read somewhere (Io9 maybe?) that Lucasfilm announced that Fisher had finished filming her episode VIII scenes so I would think her role in that film will remain intact. I do hope they find a non-awkward way to write her off offscreen if/when they do IX though.
“I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”
Make sure you give that her headline on social media.
She was my childhood hero when she played one of the few women allowed to be capable in movies, and she was my adult hero when I was diagnosed. It would have taken me a lot longer to come to terms with it had I not found out that Princess Leia had the same illness. This is a tough hit.
I also lost the one father figure who cared about my existence and my cat this year. I have three days to figure out how to exact vengeance on a measurement of time, because this kind of feels personal. Can’t even leave a lady her cat.
@ LindsayIrene
Though It take a thousand summers, I will wait for you.