Via Ew.com:
On this week’s cover, Entertainment Weekly has a split run – paying tribute to two artists lost unexpectedly at shockingly young ages: author and Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher and singer/songwriter George Michael.
As we were assembling the issue, another bombshell hit: the death of Fisher’s mother, Singin’ in the Rain actress Debbie Reynolds. Each of them gets a tribute in our first issue of 2017 as we reflect on their creative lives, personal dramas, and enduring legacies.
When the 60-year-old Fisher died on Dec. 27, several days after suffering a heart attack, she left behind not only multiple generations of shattered Star Wars fans, but also a second career as a novelist and memoirist from such books as Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking.
As Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, she was a faithful and fearless Rebel spy and soldier, facing down Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, and every other rogue the galaxy with the kind of moxie Jedi only dream about. She became a touchstone for generations of girls (and boys alike) who saw a hero in her galactic diplomat, spy, and soldier – not just another damsel in distress.
In real life, Fisher endlessly mocked her character’s cinnamon-bun hairdo, golden “slave” bikini, and fluctuating faux-British accent, but by the time of 2015’s The Force Awakens, released 38 years after the original, the wisecracking actress said she and the earnest princess had merged into one: General Organa, the leader whose solemn fight against fascist dictatorships remained undaunted but was now spiked with cynical wit.
Fisher’s most famous character was a resistance warrior who would never know peace, a princess who would never know a happily-ever-after, but still, always, she was the woman who never gave up.
As part of EW’s tribute, Luke Skywalker says farewell. Mark Hamill contributed an essay about Fisher’s life and work, memorializing his friend as a true one-of-a-kind who was both maddening and wonderful. “I loved her guts and she drove me crazy. We really were like a brother and sister,” Hamill writes.
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