• Faith: Agnostic
• Career: Actress
• Birthday:  October 21, 1956
• Date of Death:  December 27, 2016

Carrie Fisher was an American actress, writer and humorist best known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise. The daughter of Hollywood stars Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, she grew up surrounded by celebrity before establishing an identity of her own as an actress, bestselling author and sought-after script doctor. Fisher was also known for her candid discussions of addiction and mental health.

Carrie Frances Fisher was born October 21, 1956, in Burbank, California, to actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. Her father was Jewish, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, while her mother came from a Christian background and had been raised Nazarene. Fisher had a younger brother, Todd, and two paternal half-sisters, actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher.

Fisher's parents divorced when she was two after Eddie Fisher left Reynolds for actress Elizabeth Taylor. Growing up as the child of two major entertainers gave Fisher an unusual relationship with fame. She later recalled feeling overshadowed by her mother's celebrity and described herself as an awkward and insecure child who found refuge in books and writing. Her family nicknamed her "the bookworm," and she began writing at a young age.

Fisher attended Beverly Hills High School but left at 16 to appear alongside Reynolds in the Broadway revival of Irene. She later studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama for approximately 18 months and was accepted to Sarah Lawrence College, although she left before graduating to pursue her acting career.

Fisher made her film debut in the 1975 comedy Shampoo. Her breakthrough came two years later when, at age 19, she played Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' Star Wars. The film became a cultural phenomenon, and Fisher reprised the role in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi in 1983. Decades later, she returned as Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. She appeared posthumously in The Last Jedi and, through previously unreleased footage, The Rise of Skywalker.

Outside Star Wars, Fisher appeared in films including The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, The 'Burbs, When Harry Met Sally... and Soapdish. She also built a substantial career as a writer. Her semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge was published in 1987, and Fisher adapted it into the 1990 film starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Fisher became one of Hollywood's most respected script doctors, performing rewrites and dialogue work on films including Hook, Sister Act and The Wedding Singer. She later turned her life experiences into the autobiographical stage show and memoir Wishful Drinking and published additional books, including Shockaholic and The Princess Diarist.

Fisher married singer-songwriter Paul Simon in 1983, but the marriage ended the following year. She later had a relationship with talent agent Bryan Lourd, with whom she had her only child, actress Billie Lourd, in 1992. In The Princess Diarist, Fisher also disclosed that she had a brief affair with Harrison Ford while filming the original Star Wars.

Fisher spoke publicly about her struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction, becoming a prominent advocate for greater openness about mental health. She frequently used humor to discuss difficult periods of her life, incorporating those experiences into her books and stage performances.

On December 23, 2016, Fisher suffered a medical emergency while flying from London to Los Angeles. She died on December 27 at age 60. Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died the following day. Fisher was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2017 and won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for The Princess Diarist in 2018.

Carrie Fisher's Religious Beliefs

Fisher's religious identity reflected her mixed family background. Her father, Eddie Fisher, was Jewish, while her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was Christian. Fisher described her childhood religious upbringing as loosely Protestant, or "Protestant light," rather than strongly observant. As an adult, however, she increasingly identified with her father's Jewish heritage and was known to attend Jewish services, including with Orthodox Jewish friends.

Her personal theology was less defined. Fisher famously described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic" who would be happy to discover that God existed. Although she did not profess a conventional religious faith, she remained open to questions about God and maintained a cultural connection to Judaism. Her public identity therefore combined Jewish heritage and practice with an agnostic approach to religious belief.