Star Wars star Carrie Fisher dies at age 60

Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Leia in the Star Wars films, has died at the age of 60. The actress was reported to have suffered a heart attack two days before Christmas while travelling from London to Los Angeles. Her death was confirmed in a statement released by her daughter.

“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning,” read the statement.

Fisher was best known for her role in Star Wars, however she was also a writer, screen-writer and advocate for mental health and fighting drug addiction, having struggled with both during her life.  

Fisher was very open about her bipolar disorder diagnosis as well as her relationship with drugs and addiction which resulted from her condition.  In 2016, Fisher won the Harvard College Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism for "her forthright activism and outspokenness about addiction, mental illness, and agnosticism." 

She published her first novel called Postcards from the Edge in 1987 – a semi-autobiographical book that fictionalized real-life events.

In 2015, Fisher returned to her role of Leia in the Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens.