‘Star Wars’ Actress Carrie Fisher Suffers Mid-Air Heart Attack

The actress has been admitted to the ICU in an LA hospital.

File photo of Carrie Fisher at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo: AP)

Hollywood actress and writer Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday while onboard a flight from London to Los Angeles.

The 60-year-old was rushed to a hospital where she is said to be in a critical condition.

Her younger brother, Todd Fisher, said Carrie was in critical condition, and was being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a Los Angeles hospital several hours after becoming ill.

"It's not fair to say 'stable.' I am not saying she is fine, or not fine," he told Reuters by telephone in response to reports about her condition. "She is in the ICU."

Todd Fisher offered no details about his sister's condition or the circumstances of how she was stricken. He said the information had came from his sister's assistant.

The Los Angeles Times cited one unnamed source as saying the actress had been “in a lot of distress on the flight,” which landed at Los Angeles International Airport shortly after noon (2000 GMT).

According to the celebrity news website TMZ.com, Fisher suffered a "massive heart attack" 15 minutes before landing and an emergency medical technician who was aboard was ushered to the first-class cabin to aid the actress-writer.

Fisher, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, made her show business debut at the age of 12 in her mother's Las Vegas nightclub act.

Her adult career was dogged by substance abuse and mental health issues. She entered a drug treatment center in the mid-1980s to battle addiction to cocaine and later wrote the bestselling novel, ‘Postcards From the Edge’, based on her experience. The book was adapted into a 1990 movie starring Meryl Streep. Fisher also acknowledged being briefly hospitalised in 2013 due to bipolar disorder.

(This article from Reuters has been shortened for length.)