Hollywood Prays for Carrie Fisher After ‘Star Wars’ Princess Suffers Massive Heart Attack
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca are rooting for Carrie Fisher to survive a massive heart attack she suffered Friday while aboard a flight to Los Angeles.
as if 2016 couldn’t get any worse… sending all our love to @carrieffisher
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) December 23, 2016
Sixty-year-old Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” trilogy, went into cardiac arrest while in flight and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s not fair to say ‘stable.’ I am not saying she is fine, or not fine,” Todd Fisher, her brother, told Reuters by telephone. “She is in the ICU.”
United Airlines said in a statement that medical personnel met Flight 935 from London on arrival after the crew reported a passenger was unresponsive.
Police told the LA Times that when officers reached the plane they found paramedics performing CPR on a patient.
NBC News reported that law enforcement officials said Fisher’s condition was “not good.”
Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the trilogy, sent his thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers for our friend and everyone’s favorite princess right now.. @carrieffisher
— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) December 23, 2016
William Shatner chimed in.
I ask everyone to stop for a moment and send special thoughts to @carrieffisher.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 23, 2016
And fans urged Fisher to fight for her life.
May The Force Be with our beautiful princess #CarrieFisher pic.twitter.com/FZC19rdV2R
— Monster T (@TheRealMonsterT) December 23, 2016
Fisher recently published “The Princess Diarist,” her eighth book.
She tweeted a photograph Monday from London and wrote that she was filming “Catastrophe,” a British TV sitcom.
Sharon Horgan & I pretending we like each other while filming Catastrophe in London…..Succeeding! pic.twitter.com/TFsuRJ5sRS
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) December 19, 2016
Fisher, who has been on a tour promoting a new memoir, “The Princess Diarist,” is best known for her role as the intrepid Princess Leia in several of the “Star Wars” movies.
She made headlines in November with the disclosure to People magazine that she carried on a three-month love affair with her “Star Wars” co-star, actor Harrison Ford, who played the swashbuckling pilot Han Solo, during the making of the first film in the series in 1976.
She reprised her Princess Leia role in two sequels and returned last year in Disney’s reboot of the franchise, “The Force Awakens,” appearing as the more matronly General Leia Organa, leader of the Resistance movement fighting the evil First Order.
Fisher, the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, made her show business debut at age of 12 in her mother’s Las Vegas nightclub act. But her adult career was dogged by substance abuse and mental health issues.
She entered a drug treatment center in the mid-1980s to battle addiction to cocaine and later wrote the bestselling novel, “Postcards From the Edge,” based on her experience. The book was adapted into a 1990 movie starring Meryl Streep. Fisher also acknowledged being briefly hospitalized in 2013 due to bipolar disorder.—With Reuters
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