Carrie Fisher's Life in Photos Through the Years, Including Her Role in 'Star Wars'

Carrie Frances Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, California on October 21, 1956 to Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

Carrie was the result of an iconic Hollywood love story. Her mother was a famous actress and her father was a singer who, together, were the It couple in the '50s. "My mother and my father were America's sweethearts," she said in her one-woman show, Wishful Drinking. "Even my parents sort of went along with the assumption that they were a good couple, but they probably weren't a very good couple."

In 1958, the Carrie and Eddie welcomed another child, a son named Todd. Later that year, Eddie infamously left his wife for another actress: Elizabeth Taylor.

Carrie had a very close relationship with her mother. "My three husbands all left me for another woman and obviously I wasn’t a very sexual lady," Debbie told The Express in 2015. "It seemed that I was more interested in raising my children, not in pursuing my husbands." Here, a three-year-old Carrie is seen on the set of MGM's The Mating Game.

When Carrie's mother, Debbie, signed on to the Broadway play Irene, the 15-year-old decided to attach herself to the project as well. In her debut performance, the young actress played a debutante in the show.

Carrie's first starring role was in Columbia Pictures's Shampoo. The comedic satire featured some of the top stars of the decade, including Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and Goldie Hawn.

Carrie landed her breakout, and most notable, role in 1977 at the age of 22. She starred in the first Star Wars movie as Princess Leia.

In 1977, Carrie began dating singer Paul Simon, after meeting on the set of Star Wars. The pair dated on and off for the next six years, with Carrie breaking off an engagement with her The Blues Brothers costar Dan Aykroyd to reconcile with Paul in 1980.

George Lucas's first Star Wars film took off beyond anyone's imagination, raking in more than $775 million worldwide in 1977. The movie also featured Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

In 1980, the force reunited for the second installment of the franchise, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The highly-anticipated and commercialized film only further cemented the young actress's celebrity status.

By the time the second film was released, Carrie had become an undoubted icon in the cultural zeitgeist. Even more, her comedic wit and charm made her one of the most relatable stars of the moment.

To promote the third installment of Star Wars, Carrie donned a metal bikini and posed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, along with a few of her costars.

The Star Wars star and Paul Simon got married on August 16, 1983 in New York City. The couple were married for a little over a year before divorcing. Although they reunited after the divorce, it wasn't long-lived. Simon's song "Hearts and Bones" is famously about their long romance.

The actress returned to the stage on Broadway once again for the play Agnes of God in 1983. Here, she's seen with her father Eddie, whom she's been honest about having a strained relationship with. "He defined me more by his absence than by presence," Fisher told The New York Times.

Throughout the early '80s, Carrie battled an addiction to drugs and alcohol. After an accidental overdose in 1985, the actress stuck to her sobriety, although she battled it her entire life. "I didn't like illegal drugs, I liked legal drugs, so I liked medicine. I liked the philosophy of it, 'You're going to feel better if you take two—or eight—of these.' And I always wanted to feel better," Carrie said of her addiction on CNN's Larry King.

At the age of 29, Carrie was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder, a form of mental illness causing manic-depressive episodes. Although the actress kept silent about her diagnosis at first, she later said that it contributed to her battle with substance abuse.

Moving away from the Star Wars movies, Carrie appeared in Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters in 1986, alongside Sam Waterston, Mia Farrow, and Barbara Hershey.

Carrie's first novel, Postcards From the Edge, landed on The New York Times's Best Seller list. The new author also was awarded the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel for her semi-autobiographical book.

In the late '80s, Carrie was more than happy to fill supporting roles in big blockbuster films, such as When Harry Met Sally and The 'Burbs.

The actress turned her first novel into a screenplay in 1990 and the script was picked up by Columbia Pictures. A-list actresses Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine starred in the film.