CARRIE FISHER Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

Biography » actors and actresses » carrie fisher

CARRIE FISHER

Name: Carrie Frances Fisher                                                               
Born: 21 October 1956 Beverly Hills, California, U.S.                                     
                                                                                         
Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress,                     
screenwriter and novelist. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia         
Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy.                                                 
                                                                                         
Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of singer Eddie               
Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds; her paternal grandparents were Jewish                 
immigrants from Russia. Her younger brother is Todd Fisher and her half-sisters           
are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is actress               
Connie Stevens.                                                                           
                                                                                         
When Fisher was two, her parents divorced and her father married actress                 
Elizabeth Taylor. The following year, her mother married shoe store chain owner           
Harry Karl. It was assumed from an early age that Fisher would go into the               
family business; she began appearing with her mother in Las Vegas at age 12. She         
attended Beverly Hills High School but left to join her mother on the road. She           
appeared as a debutante and singer in the hit Broadway revival Irene (1973)               
starring her mother.                                                                     
                                                                                         
Soon after, Fisher enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama,               
which she attended for 18 months. She made her film debut in the Columbia comedy         
Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee           
Grant and Jack Warden.                                                                   
                                                                                         
In 1977, Fisher starred as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' sci-fi film             
Star Wars opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.                                         
                                                                                         
The huge success of Star Wars made her internationally famous. The character of           
Princess Leia became a merchandising triumph; there were small plastic action             
figures of the Princess in toy stores across the United States. She appeared as           
Princess Leia in the 1978 made-for-TV movie, The Star Wars Holiday Special.               
Fisher hosted the Saturday Night Live episode that included the second                   
performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as their popular Blues Brothers               
characters.                                                                               
                                                                                         
Fisher appeared in the music video for Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen"           
as the love interest in 1978 on Ringo's TV special of that year.                         
                                                                                         
Fisher later appeared in The Blues Brothers movie in a cameo role as Joliet Jake's       
vengeful ex-lover, listed in the credits as "Mystery Woman." She appeared on             
Broadway in Censored Scenes From King Kong in 1980. That year, she appeared               
again as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. She made         
her third and final appearance as Leia in the series in Star Wars Episode VI:             
Return of the Jedi. After her appearance wearing a golden metal bikini, or slave         
girl outfit, that almost immediately rose to pop culture icon status, Fisher             
became a sex symbol for a short period. She also was a                                   
replacement in the Broadway production of Agnes of God (1982).                           
                                                                                         
In 1987, Fisher published her first novel, Postcards from the Edge. The book was         
semi-autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized and satirized real             
life events such as her drug addiction of the late 1970s. It became a                     
bestseller, and she received the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel.             
Fisher played a major supporting role in When Harry Met Sally in 1989. In 1989,           
she also played opposite of Tom Hanks as his wife in The Burbs.                           
                                                                                         
In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a movie version of Postcards from the Edge,           
adapted for the screen by Fisher and starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine,             
and Dennis Quaid. She also appeared in the movie Drop Dead Fred in 1991. In 1997,         
Fisher appeared as a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.           
She is one of the few actors to star in movies with both John and Jim Belushi,           
later appearing with the latter in the movie The Man with One Red Shoe. During           
the 1990s Fisher also published the novels Surrender the Pink (1991) and                 
Delusions of Grandma (1993).                                                             
                                                                                         
In the movie Scream 3 (2000), Fisher played an actress mistaken for Carrie               
Fisher. ("Yeah, I was up for the part of Princess Leia. But who gets it? The             
girl who slept with George Lucas!") Director's commentary on the Scream 3 DVD             
suggests that the sequence was in fact penned by Fisher herself. In 2001, Fisher         
appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. This was the first time she took             
part in a movie together with Mark Hamill since the original Star Wars trilogy (although 
neither actor realized this until the premiere).                                         
                                                                                         
She also co-wrote the TV comedy movie These Old Broads (2001), of which she was           
also co-executive producer. It starred her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as well as           
Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, and Shirley MacLaine. In this, Taylor's                   
character, an agent, explains to Reynolds' character, an actress, that she was           
in an alcoholic blackout when she married the actress' husband, "Freddy."                 
                                                                                         
Besides acting and writing original works, Fisher is one of the best-known               
script doctors in Hollywood, working on the screenplays of other writers. She             
has done uncredited polishes on movies starting with Steven Spielberg's Hook and         
continuing today. Her expertise in this area is why she was                               
interviewed for the screenwriting documentary Dreams on Spec in 2007.                     
                                                                                         
Fisher also plays Peter Griffin's boss on the animated sitcom Family Guy and             
appeared in a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms (2001) for which she             
wrote the introduction.                                                                   
                                                                                         
Fisher published a Suzanne Vale sequel novel, The Best Awful There Is in 2004.           
Since Postcards from the Edge, Vale has married, become a parent, and divorced.           
She also is undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder but is not entirely                 
comfortable with her "normal" self.                                                       
                                                                                         
Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play "Wishful Drinking" at the               
Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from November 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007.               
Her show is currently playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theater through March,           
2008.                                                                                     
                                                                                         
She is a full-time judge on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality TV series On             
the Lot.                                                                                 
                                                                                         
Fisher recently joined Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne on Saturday             
evenings for The Essentials with informative and entertaining conversation on             
Hollywoods best films.                                                                   
                                                                                         
She guest-starred in the episode titled "Sex and Another City" from season 3 of           
Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker. This episode also featured Vince             
Vaughn in a guest role.                                                                   
                                                                                         
On October 25, 2007, Carrie guest starred on 30 Rock for the "Rosemary's Baby"           
Episode 4 of Season 2. She starred as Rosemary Howard. Her last line in the show         
was a spoof from Star Wars: "Help me Liz Lemon, You're my only hope!".