By Bagar Laura & Meyer Clotilde
Introduction:
The famous actor Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016 in California, a few days after she had had a heart attack in a plane at the age of 60. The day following her death, her mother Debbie Reynold was in turn hospitalized in Los Angeles after suffering from a severe stroke. On January 5, 2017, a private
funeral was held for both Fisher and Reynolds.
Carrie was an American actress, writer and humorist. She became well-known for playing Princess Leia in Star Wars.
Private life:
Carrie Fisher was born in October 21st, 1956 in Beverly Hills, California. She grew up amidst a show-business family. Her father, Eddie Fisher, was a singer and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was an actress. When she was about 2 years old, her father left the family home to live with his new wife, Elizabeth Taylor.
She grew up on tour with her mother. So, she was attracted by acting and performing.
Carrie dated a few men at the same time. She was living with Paul Simon and at the same time she was engaged with Dan Aykroyd. But the wedding was cancelled and she married Paul Simon in 1983. However, they had a divorce one year after but kept on seeing each other for a while.
After that, Carrie Fisher met Bryan Lourd, an “artist’s agent”. They had a girl together, Billie, born in 1992. When Billie was one year old, Bryan Lourd left Carrie for a man. Bryan stated that Carrie made him come out of the closet. Yet they probably broke up because of her cocaine’s addiction.
In 2001, she wrote an autobiography entitled Shockaholic in which she honestly talked about her bipolar troubles and her addictions.
Professional life:
She then transformed and since then had written five novel. Carrie also wrote her memoirs, Wishful Drinking, in 2008 and The Princess Diarist in 2016. In the latter, she revealed her affair with Harrison Ford when they were filming Star Wars.
Carrie Fisher got her first role in 1975 in the movie Shampoo when she was only 19 years old. Before she had been playing in Broadway at 17.
Her career reached its apogees in 1977 with the first episode of Star Wars and her interpretation of Princess Leia: this movie is a worldwide success and Carrie became a famous actress.
Following this success, she kept on appearing in the Star Wars saga, in the second episode in 1980 and the third episode in 1983. She is mostly known for this saga but she was in a lot of different movies. But all was not perfect when she played in Star Wars: she hated the costumes she had to wear and as well as her hair style; she complained about the white dress she was forced to wear in the 4th episode, but the costume she hated the most was her bikini, in “Return of the Jedi”, the 6th episode. She abhorred her “bagel bun” hair style, but she didn’t dare complain about it to the director. And she thought that she did a bad job when she was playing Leia: she didn’t think that she was a good actress.
During her carrier, Carrie had had the opportunity to act in movies with famous directors: Woody Allen and Rob Reiner, and also in TV shows. She had also worked as a script-writer, for example in Star Wars I, II and III (1999 to 2005.) She became a novel writer in 2004 and wrote a book entitled The Best Awful, followed by Postcard from the Edge. This latter book was made into a movie. Even if she had lots of role during her career, she never again played such an emblematic role that was Princess Leia. In 2015 and 2016 she came back in Star Wars 7th, always in her famous role.
When she died, fans around the world sent their support and their love to Carrie on social media, they using the hashtag #MayTheForceBeWithYou
Drugs, alcohol and bipolarity:
Carrie was a funny and happy-looking actress but she was actually confronted to major issues: drugs, alcohol and bipolarity.
On the set of Star Wars few actors were using cocaine to keep fit. Slowly Carrie Fisher’s consumption got out of hands. She only admitted it later in her life.
Bipolar trouble added to her drug and alcohol problems. She has been diagnosed with addictions at the age of 24 but she accepted that only after 5 years when she was 29. She overdosed so she had to be sober and it was so difficult to accept her mood 
disorder. She went to an alcoholics anonymous association and went through a treatment with electroshock and that helped her to find a balance. She said “electroshock was the only things who functioned to take me out the depression”.
The funerals of Carrie and her mother Debbie were just for family and close friends and held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. Carrie’s brother, Todd Fisher came to the funeral with a strange urn shaped like a giant ‘Prozac’ pill. He said that this object was Carrie’s favorite thing.
Afterwards, Ruta Lee, a friend of the Reynolds, said
that the funerals were ‘quiet’ and ‘beautiful’.
Sources:
Gala.fr
Dailymail.co.uk
Theguardian.com
Biography.com
Femmes.orange.fr
Premiere.fr
20minutes.fr
Sources for pictures:
Deadline.com
Popsugar.com
Vanityfair.com
The Franglish Blog 