A family full of actors. Fans may have known Carrie Fisher for her iconic role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise, but the legendary actress wasn’t the only movie star in her family.
The late When Harry Met Sally actress was born in 1956 to award-winning actress Debbie Reynolds and actor and singer Eddie Fisher. Two years after her birth, the Hollywood stars welcomed son Todd Fisher.
After her parents’ divorce in 1959 due to Eddie’s infamous affair with Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie was married to the Cleopatra actress from 1959 to 1964 and later wed Connie Stevens from 1967 before splitting two years later. Stevens and Eddie had two daughters together: Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, born in 1967 and 1968, respectively.
Following in her parents’ Hollywood footsteps, Carrie started acting in the 1970s and quickly became beloved the world over with her iconic role as Princess Leia in 1977’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which she quickly followed up with The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi in 1983.
Despite her incredible success, the Wishful Drinking author later revealed that she still had a difficult time living in her mother’s shadow in her early 20s. In a 2011 interview, Carrie spoke about her life growing up with famous parents and how she struggled to have a good relationship with her mom.
“We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my 20s. I didn’t want to be around her,” she shared at the time. “I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds’ daughter.”
In addition to coming from a famous family, Carrie went on to create her own. After marrying Paul Simon in 1983 — and divorcing him one year later — Carrie had a relationship with talent agent Bryan Lourd. Their daughter, Billie Lourd, was born in 1992.
Carrie’s death in December 2016 was devastating for Billie, who was 23 at the time. The Shampoo actress passed away at age 60 after suffering cardiac arrest. One day later, her mother died at age 84 after suffering a stroke.
“She wanted to be with Carrie,” Todd told Variety after Reynolds’ death, adding that the stress of Carrie’s passing was “too much for her.”
Billie, for her part, recalled the death of her mother and grandmother as a “brutal” period of time in her life.
“It was really, really brutal, and I still hesitate and stutter because it’s really hard for me,” the Scream Queens alum shared on the “New Day” podcast in October 2021. “I miss my mom every day and my grandma, but really, my mom the most.”
Seven years after Carrie’s death, Billie broke her silence about not inviting her late mother’s siblings to the actress’ Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in May 2023.
“Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject,” the American Horror Story alum explained in a statement obtained by Variety at the time. “I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship. Though I recognize they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a different way.”
Keep scrolling to learn more about Carrie’s famous family members:
