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Carrie Fisher Dead at 60 After Suffering Cardiac Arrest

Update 12/27 6:48 p.m. ET: TMZ reports that Carrie Fisher died after suffering cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning. According to the site, sources close to the Star Wars actress say Fisher also suffered cardiac arrest, not a heart attack, while aboard the flight last Friday. After being hospitalized, she was placed on a ventilator and on Tuesday her family was reportedly discussing taking her off life support when her heart suddenly stopped again and she died.

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Carrie Fisher died on Tuesday, December 27, four days after suffering a heart attack. The Star Wars icon was 60. Find out more in the video above, and detailed below.

“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother, Carrie Fisher, passed away at 8:55 this morning,” family spokesman Simon Halls said in a statement to Us Weekly. “She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”

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Carrie Fisher attends Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm's
Carrie Fisher attends the premiere of Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ on December 14, 2015, in Hollywood. Todd Williamson/Getty Images

As previously reported, the actress suffered a massive heart attack while on a flight from London to LAX on Friday, December 23. According to TMZ, an EMT on board the flight administered CPR and once the plane landed in Los Angeles, Fisher was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was in critical condition. Fisher had been in London on a book tour for her new memoir, The Princess Diarist.

Sources familiar with the situation told TMZ that Fisher never regained consciousness and “was unresponsive from the time she suffered the massive heart attack on the United flight to the time she died.”

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The legendary actress, who was born on October 21, 1956, rose to fame in the original Star Wars trilogy as Princess Leia. Fisher, the daughter of Hollywood star Debbie Reynolds and pop star Eddie Fisher, was born in Beverly Hills, California, and made her film debut in the 1975 flick Shampoo. (Eddie Fisher famously left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor.)

Fisher later appeared in 1980s movies The Blues Brothers, The Man With One Red Shoe and Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters. The actress also famously starred in When Harry Met Sally and alongside Tom Hanks in The ‘Burbs. She most recently reprised her role as Leia for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The actress was also a bestselling author, starred in hit one-women shows about her life, and was also known as a top script doctor, working on screenplays for hits such as Hook, Sister Act, The Wedding Singer and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Fisher also famously struggled with addiction and mental illness, which she chronicled in her memoir and show Wishful Drinking, where she openly discussed her battles with booze and bipolar disorder.

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Fisher is survived by her daughter, Scream Queens actress Billie Lourd, who she shares with her ex, talent agent Bryan Lourd. She was previously married to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.

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