Carrie Fisher

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Carrie Fisher - best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the wildly popular "Star Wars" films - died yesterday, days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight. The 60-year-old actress had been in intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital after collapsing on the jetliner from London on Friday.

Fisher was catapulted to worldwide stardom as the royal rebel Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, which has been a cultural phenomenon since the release of the films from 1977 to 1983. She had just finished filming the third season of her latest screen project, the Amazon comedy television series "Catastrophe", which is set in London. She had also been on a publicity tour for her new book, "The Princess Diarist", which made headlines because she wrote about a three-month affair with Harrison Ford while they were filming the original "Star Wars" trilogy.