LOS ANGELES – Carrie Fisher, the actress best known for her iconic character of Princess Leia in "Star Wars," has died after suffering a heart attack. She was 60.
Family spokesman Simon Halls released a statement on behalf of Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd.
"It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother, Carrie Fisher, passed away at 8:55 this morning," the statement said. "She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers."
Fisher had been hospitalized since Friday when she suffered a medical emergency on board a flight to Los Angeles.
She made her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit "Shampoo" and was also an accomplished author who detailed her experiences with addiction and mental illness in several best-selling books.
Other film credits include "The Blues Brothers," "The Man with One Red Shoe," "The 'Burbs", "When Harry Met Sally" and "Soapdish."
Fisher long battled drug addiction and mental illness. She said she smoked pot at age 13, used LSD by 21 and was first diagnosed as bipolar at age 24. She was treated with electroconvulsive therapy and medication.
In 1987, her thinly veiled autobiography "Postcards From the Edge" became a best seller. It became a 1990 film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.
More books followed: "Delusions of Grandma," ''Surrender the Pink," ''The Best Awful," ''Shockaholic" and this year's autobiography, "The Princess Diarist," in which she revealed that she and co-star Harrison Ford had an affair on the set of "Star Wars."
Ever ready to satirize herself, she has even played Carrie Fisher a few times, as in David Cronenberg's dark Hollywood sendup "Maps to the Stars" and in an episode of "Sex and the City." In the past 15 years, Fisher also had a somewhat prolific career as a television guest star, recently in the Amazon show "Catastrophe" as the mother of Rob Delaney's lead, and perhaps most memorably as a has-been comedy legend on "30 Rock."
Her one-woman show, "Wishful Drinking," which she's performed on and off across the country since 2006, was turned into a book, made its way to Broadway in 2009 and was captured for HBO in 2010.
Little was off-limits in the show. She discussed the scandal that engulfed her superstar parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (he ran off with Elizabeth Taylor); her brief marriage to singer Paul Simon; the time the father of her daughter left her for a man; and the day she woke up next to the dead body of a platonic friend who had overdosed in her bed.
"Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter," Reynolds said in a post on her Facebook page. "I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop."
Carrie Fisher has passed away at age 60. See her legendary career through the years: https://t.co/0kFhFTD1gO pic.twitter.com/P1PBa6Pwcq
— ABC News (@ABC) December 27, 2016