Born: 21st October 1956
Died: 27th December 2016 (aged 60)
Born the daughter of a singer and actress it was no surprise Carrie Frances Fisher entered into show business at a young age. Age 16 she sang alongside her mother in the hit Broadway revival of Irene, but this Broadway experience interfered with her education and she dropped out of High School. A year later she attended Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, in London before returning to America to study the arts. Her film career started in 1974, alongside the likes of Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn.
She has been romantically linked with several famous names including Harrison Ford, Dan Ackroyd and Paul Simon (who she married).
Before we get onto her top five we have to talk about the character that made her name, and the film franchise that fills the top six on its own, Star Wars’ Princess Leia Organa. At the age of 19, Carrie Fisher beat the likes of Jodie Foster, Geena Davis, Sigourney Weaver and many others to the role of Princess Leia. For a certain generation this set of films was their introduction to cinema and the first appearance of Leia, as a hologram, is probably one of the most iconic scenes (her hairstyle and bikini from Return of the Jedi will also be remembered for a very long time) Leia is a feisty, strong willed young lady that overcomes any obstacle that gets in her way during her fight for her cause. For such a young, diminutive actress, Carrie’s interpretation of Leia is very confident and she portrays her in such a way that it would have been a good stepping stone for strong female characters in Hollywood and although some did follow (including Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in the Alien franchise) I feel that many have fallen by the wayside.
Now let’s look at that top five (excluding any Star Wars films obviously)
Firstly we have Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, in which she plays the Mother Superior, a two minute part in what is probably the worst sequel ever. If I hadn’t known the character she was playing I would have missed this small cameo as I didn’t recognise her; maybe they thought adding actors of Carrie’s calibre might enhance the film but even if she’d played all three Angels I doubt it would have distracted from the poor support, script and stunts! Next we have Scream 3, another cameo, she plays Bianca Burnette, who looks like Carrie Fisher (no surprise there!) and, according to Bianca, she also went for the role of Princess Leia but lost out to ‘the one who sleeps with George Lucas’. I doubt Carrie ever did but I love actors who play these kind of cameos, where they can poke fun at themselves. Third we have the best rom-com ever, When Harry Met Sally, in which Ms Fisher plays Marie, Meg Ryan’s best friend and self-proclaimed matchmaker (she has a mini file of men), she is a suitable support for our main character they are both slightly ‘kookie’ in their own way but neither over-shadow each other. For the fourth film on this list, Heartbreakers, she is only on screen for one minute and to be honest I didn’t recognise her; it’s such a small role it was almost like the actress who was supposed to play the role didn’t turn up and Carrie was on a break from filming in the next studio and they asked her to stand in! Not that she was unprepared for the role it just seems an expensive casting for such a minute role. Finally, we have The Blues Brothers, a wonderfully funny film with some excellent cameos. One of these cameos is Carrie Fisher who plays the Mystery Woman after Joliet Jake. I can’t say why or if she gets him you’ll just have to watch the film to find out, but she does play crazy quite well! Carrie was the guest host on Saturday Night Live when The Blue Brothers made their first appearance and she became engaged to Dan Ackroyd during filming.
Just going by this top five I would find it hard to say which Carrie Fisher film is my favourite– I love When Harry Met Sally and The Blues Brothers but they are not really her movies. Star Wars has to be the ONE for me; it’s a classic story of good vs bad, it’s a love story and it’s an adventure film with robots, aliens, good characters and plot. It was the start of my cinema experience and I have seen every episode that’s been produced. Although the original three films (chapters IV, V and VI) are still the best, I have come to appreciate the prequels and sequels much more than I ever expected to.
At the age of 22, Carrie had her first novel was published. It was a semi-autobiographical story based on her relationship with drugs and her mother. Two more novels were published in the 1990s and she also wrote episodes for TV and contributed to several film scripts.
