[4][5] Her other film credits include Shampoo (1975), The Blues Brothers (1980), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The 'Burbs (1989), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Soapdish (1991), and The Women (2008).

[10] Fisher died of a sudden cardiac arrest in December 2016, at age 60, four days after experiencing a medical emergency during a transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles.

She attended Beverly Hills High School until age 16, when she appeared as a debutante and singer in the hit Broadway revival Irene (1973), also starring her mother.

[41] That November, she played Princess Leia in the 1978 TV production Star Wars Holiday Special, and sang in the last scene.

[42] Fisher appeared in the film The Blues Brothers as Jake's vengeful ex-lover; she is listed in the credits as "Mystery Woman".

The same year, she reprised her role as Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, and appeared with her Star Wars co-stars on the cover of the July 12, 1980, issue of Rolling Stone to promote the film.

In 1989, Fisher played a major supporting role in When Harry Met Sally..., and in the same year she appeared with Tom Hanks as his character's wife in The 'Burbs.

[6] In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a film version of Postcards from the Edge, adapted for the screen by Fisher and starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid.

[53] Fisher appeared in the fantasy comedy film Drop Dead Fred in 1991, and played a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).

Fisher wrote an episode of the television sitcom Roseanne entitled "Arsenic and Old Mom", in which her mother Debbie Reynolds made a guest appearance.

[61] Fisher also voiced Peter Griffin's boss, Angela, on the animated sitcom Family Guy[62] and wrote the introduction for a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms, which was published in 2001.

[64] Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play Wishful Drinking at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from November 2006 to January 2007.

[69] Fisher published her autobiographical book, also titled Wishful Drinking, based on her successful play in December 2008 and embarked on a media tour.

[71][72] In December 2009, Fisher's audiobook recording of Wishful Drinking earned her a nomination for a 2009 Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category.

[73] Fisher joined Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne on Saturday evenings in 2007 for The Essentials with informative and entertaining conversation on Hollywood's best films.

"[76] In 2010, HBO aired a feature-length documentary based on a special live performance of Fisher's Wishful Drinking stage production.

In her monologue, Fisher poked fun at her own mental illness,[79] and her fellow roasters' reliance on weight and menopause jokes.

[84] Fisher starred alongside Sharon Horgan and comedian Rob Delaney in the British comedy series Catastrophe, that was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK on January 19, 2015.

[85][86] Her last appearance on Catastrophe, which aired in the UK on April 4, 2017, left many viewers in tears[87] and earned her a posthumous Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination.

In a March 2013 interview following the announcement that a new trilogy of films would be produced, Fisher confirmed that she would reprise her role as Princess Leia in Episode VII of the Star Wars series.

[92] In Rogue One (2016), which is set just before the original trilogy, young versions of Leia and the Peter Cushing character Grand Moff Tarkin appear through computer animation.

The final autopsy report listed the cause of death as "cocaine and oxycodone use" but added chronic and apparently previously undiagnosed heart disease as contributing factors.

"[37] In her later years, Fisher had an emotional support animal, a French bulldog named Gary, that she brought to numerous appearances and interviews.

[119] In 2016, Harvard College gave Fisher its Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism, noting that "her forthright activism and outspokenness about addiction, mental illness, and agnosticism have advanced public discourse on these issues with creativity and empathy.

[123] She also served as an honorary board member for the International Bipolar Foundation,[124] and, in 2014, received the Golden Heart Award for her work with The Midnight Mission.

[126] During appearances on 20/20 and The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive with Stephen Fry, Fisher publicly discussed her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and her addictions to cocaine and prescription medication.

"[128] She discussed her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking and various topics in it with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today that same year, and also revealed that she would have turned down the role of Princess Leia had she realized it would give her the celebrity status that made her parents' lives difficult.

[145] In a June 16, 2017, news release, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said that the exact cause of death could not be determined, but sleep apnea and the buildup of fatty tissue on the walls of arteries were among the contributing factors.

On October 27, 2023, James Blunt released an album including a track called "Dark Thought" about the death of Fisher, who was a friend of his.

[171] During her almost five-decade-long career, Fisher had appearances in over 50 films, as well as various television series, documentaries, late night talk shows, video games, and commercials.