Carrie Fisher has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack last week, People reports. The actress, best known for her iconic role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, went into cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles on December 23. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was treated for a heart attack.
Fisher's family announced on Tuesday that the actress had died.
"It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning," a statement from Fisher's daughter Lourd read. "She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers."
Fisher spent days in intensive care at UCLA Medical Center, where her mother said the actress was in stable condition. After the news of her death was announced, Mark Hamil, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, wrote on Twitter that he was "devastated."
Star Wars creator George Lucas said in a statement that Fisher was "our great and powerful princess—feisty, wise and full of hope."
Harrison Ford said in a statement that Fisher was "one-of-a-kind, brilliant, original. Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely. My thoughts are with her daughter Billie, her Mother Debbie, her brother Todd and her many friends. We will all miss her."
Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams shared a handwritten note about Fisher on Twitter. "You didn't need to meet Carrie Fisher to understand her power," his statement read. "She was just as brilliant and beautiful, tough and wonderful, incisive and funny as you could imagine. What an unfair thing to lose her. How lucky to have been blessed with her at all."
A pop culture icon, Fisher was known after her Star Wars fame for her straight-talk about equality in Hollywood and suffering from addiction. In the weeks leading up to her heart attack, Fisher was promoting her eighth book, an autobiography titled The Princess Diarist. The daughter of pop singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, Fisher used her status as Hollywood royalty to address the flawed entertainment industry. She detailed this in her 1990 semi-autobiographical memoir Postcards from the Edge, which became a critically acclaimed film starring Meryl Streep as Fisher's alter ego Suzanne.
This post will be updated.
