Fisher suffered a cardiac incident on Friday during a flight to Los Angeles from London, where she had been filming the third season of the Amazon comedy series "Catastrophe." Upon landing, she was quickly rushed to UCLA Medical Center, but after three days in intensive care, she died, a family publicist confirmed. She was 60 years old.

From the moment she first stepped onto the screen in 1977's "Star Wars," the character of Leia Organa — whip-smart, wryly funny and fearless enough to stand up to the likes of Darth Vader without batting an eye, with an instantly iconic set of buns on either side of her head — inspired generations of young girls to be bold and inspired crushes in generations of young boys. 

Decades later, when Fisher returned to the role in last year's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," she reflected to The Times on her status as a new kind of role model in the pop culture landscape.

I remember the first time it was weird to me was when someone wanted to thank me because they'd become a lawyer because of me," Fisher said. "The main thing they said is that they identified with me. I felt like that was somebody that could be heroic without being a superhero and be relatable."