10 ms·

Carrie Fisher has died

428 points by antr 10y ago

jedimastert 10y ago
I really thought she was gonna pull out of it this time. Geez.
techwizrd 10y ago
This is sad. My condolences to her family and friends. At least this was after the Star Wars: Rogue One movie. Edit: I think the downvotes misunderstood the intent of my comment. I'm glad she was able to enjoy the new Star Wars movie, and I'm glad her friends, fans, and family also were able to enjoy it without mourning.
- oxide 10y ago
  >At least this was after the Star Wars: Rogue One movie. huh? why would that matter?
  - rhapsodic 10y ago
    > huh? why would that matter? Well, it's nice that she lived long enough to see the part that her character played in the movie, and that her family was able to enjoy it for a brief time without her death casting a pall over it.
    - melling 10y ago
      Someone else played that part. It was done with cg.
    - sandworm101 10y ago
      Really? An aging actress might not be too happy seeing the highlight of her career replaced by a combination of stand-in teenagers and cgi.
      - tbirrell 10y ago
        I doubt this is an issue since everyone knows that no one can replace Carrie Fisher as Leia.
        sandworm101 10y ago
        Except for the younger generations for whom rogue1 might be their first sw movie. I run into kids every day who dont know the originals. It makes me feel very old.
      - danso 10y ago
        Fisher has always seemed to have a mature, nuanced take on what the role of Leia meant in her life. Both a love that she got her life transformed, coupled with the bemused resentment of people's expectations and the reality of being an aging actress. Hard to imagine she was terribly bitter about Rogue One. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-carrie-fisher-obit-20161227-story.html http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-carrie-... When some moviegoers complained on social media about how much older she looked in “The Force Awakens” than when she had last played the character more than three decades earlier, she retorted on Twitter with her typical sharp wit, “Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately it hurts all 3 of my feelings.”... ...“It's not always fun, but it’s certainly life-changing,” she told The Times last year. “I have been Princess Leia exclusively. It’s been a part of my life for 40 years…. I’m like the diplomat to a country that I haven’t been to yet. I am that country.”
        sandworm101 10y ago
        What a contracted actor says in interviews should always be taken with a grain of salt. These are professionals.
        theshrike79 10y ago
        Have you even seen a Carrie Fisher interview? She doesn't have many filters in what she says :)
    - techwizrd 10y ago
      Well put. She was able to enjoy the new movie, and so were her friends, fans, and family. It would be even sadder had she not gotten a chance to enjoy a new installment to a franchise she has contributed so much to.
    - djsumdog 10y ago
      It's just a movie. It's like that old saying, "No body every said on their death bed, 'I wish I had spent more time in the office.'
      - pavel_lishin 10y ago
        But she was an actor; this was the thing that she chose to spend her life doing, and something she loved doing. She wasn't collating expense reports - she was doing something very creative, with like-minded people, to create something enjoyed by millions of people world-wide. I bet there are plenty of actors who said, on their death bed, "I wish I had spent more time on stage".
pyed 10y ago
2016 man, 2016.
- stevekemp 10y ago
  It hasn't been such a bad year, really. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38329740 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38329740
  - coldpie 10y ago
    The celebrity deaths have been rough, but I think the political success of racism, hate and fear has been at least equally depressing this year. It's been a bad year.
  - k__ 10y ago
    TL;DR "2016 has seen the largest number of famous people die"
Insanity 10y ago
May she rest in piece. I also thought she was going to pull through this. A loss for the film industry but moreso for her family :-(
LoSboccacc 10y ago
I thought all planes had to have on board defribillators?
- zouhair 10y ago
  Defibrillators do mostly nothing for heart attacks.
  - JshWright 10y ago
    The term "heart attack" is often mistakenly applied to cardiac arrest. Defibrillation is only useful in (some) cases of cardiac arrest.
- CarpetBench 10y ago
  AEDs (defibrillators) are only good for specific types of cardiac conditions. Since they were performing CPR on her, it's likely she had a very weak or no heartbeat (asystole), which defibrillators are no good with. Defibrillators are only good when your heart is working erratically, not when it doesn't work at all.
  - JshWright 10y ago
    Defibrillators are used in cases of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. These are lethal heart rhythms where the heart is either quivering uselessly, or beating too fast to allow the heart to fill with blood between beats. In both of those cases, the patient will have no pulse. A defibrillator will never shock someone who has a pulse (weak or otherwise). Asystole is when there is no electrical activity in the heart. You are correct that that asystole cannot be shocked, but it definitely won't result in a 'weak' heartbeat (nor should you do CPR on someone with a weak pulse).
    - CarpetBench 10y ago
      > nor should you do CPR on someone with a weak pulse Absolutely untrue. CPR is recommended by the AHA for anyone who isn't breathing, regardless of whether they have a pulse [0]. By "she may have had a weak pulse", I mean that she may have had a weak pulse that wasn't felt. That's not asystole technically, but it results in the same treatment. Emergency situations are, understandably, high-adrenaline scenarios and mistakes get made. Even professionals aren't great at detecting carotid pulses properly all the time [1]. > In both of those cases, the patient will have no pulse Absolutely untrue as well. Only VF is pulseless. VT can present both ways [2]. 0: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/122/18_suppl_3/S640 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/122/18_suppl_3/S640 1: http://www.emsworld.com/article/10320480/the-vital-signs-part-2-pulse http://www.emsworld.com/article/10320480/the-vital-signs-par... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_tachycardia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_tachycardia
messutied 10y ago
"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not." -Master Yoda May the Force be with you Princess Source: a Reddit comment [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5kkzmo/comment/dbonl3d?st=IX7UB1IO&sh=1c85e406 https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5kkzmo/comment/dbon...
- Vaskivo 10y ago
  That... hit way harder than it should. Thank you.
- mentat2737 10y ago
  She is one with the Force, the Force is with her. source: the comments in that thread.
  - daveguy 10y ago
    > source: the comments in that thread ... and the new Rogue One movie. If you haven't seen it -- it is worth watching.
    - therealdrag0 10y ago
      I thought it sucked. Sure it's pretty and it's StarWars universe, but I would have been happy to not see it.
    - mentat2737 10y ago
      Watched two days ago. Lovely, I really liked it.
- azatris 10y ago
  Except it's blatantly unrealistic. Death is not 'a part of life', but a nuisance. Not all species 'die' (e.g. jellyfish, hydra, possibly lobsters, flatworms). And 'the Force' is fictional and does not apply to Carrie Fisher. As long as we have our species, it is enevitable we will be achieving immortality. My point being - every death is a tragedy.
doppp 10y ago
I am genuinely heartbroken. Rest in peace. :(
eganist 10y ago
Condolences to her family and to the wider Star Wars community. On a film-related note: I'm assuming any role she might've had in Episode 8 might've already been shot since the film is in post production, but given that she's passed away and (I figure) Leia almost certainly won't be recast, how might Disney rejigger the storyline going forward? Furious 7 handled Paul Walker's death through CG and the use of Paul's brother to stand in for missing shots, but that was to close out a single film rather than to adjust for broader plot gaps in an overarching series.
- melling 10y ago
  You didn't see Rouge One? There's an actor who's been dead for 20 years. Carrie Fisher didn't play her part.
  - TylerE 10y ago
    And it looked bloody awful! Talk about uncanny valley!
    - arrosenberg 10y ago
      I was thinking the younger characters are probably harder to do because they can't hide the flaws anywhere. Leia was very creepy in Rogue One, but it didn't even occur to me that Peter Cushing had died 20 years ago until after I finished watching the movie. His recreation was very good.
      - JonnieCache 10y ago
        I thought it looked like a PS4 cutscene tbh. I think if you play video games then you're primed to notice the facial animation techniques.
        thefalcon 10y ago
        Yes, I couldn't help but feel like they were very well rendered video game characters surrounded by live actors, and I had to force myself back into the movie. I still have no idea what happened in the first scene Tarkin appears in.
greedo 10y ago
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter - Yoda
danso 10y ago
Awful news. 60 is young, but as Fisher herself has noted, she's lived a pretty hard life when it came to drugs and alcohol. Her reported weight loss regiment for Star Wars VII couldn't have helped [0] I'm glad she lived long enough to get her new memoir out. Sounds like a must-read, with her affair with Harrison Ford being the least interesting part of how she dealt with Star Wars at the age of 19 http://themuse.jezebel.com/carrie-fisher-fucks-han-solo-fights-princess-leia-and-1789369256 http://themuse.jezebel.com/carrie-fisher-fucks-han-solo-figh... [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/carrie-fisher-pressured-to-lose-weight-for-the-force-awakens-2015-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/carrie-fisher-pressured-to-lo...
- lucky_cloud 10y ago
  "To lose the weight, she watched what she ate and exercised more." Watching caloric intake and exercising tends to decrease your chances of heart attack.
  - danso 10y ago
    I addressed that in a longer comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13265439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13265439 tldr: Fisher had plenty of experience in losing weight, even being Jenny Craig's spokesperson in 2011. For her to have been publicly denigrating TFA at the time of its release (even before it, IIRC), doesn't make it sound like it was the healthy kind of weight loss: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/carrie-fisher-talks-losing-35-pounds-force-awakens-article-1.2451740 http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/carrie-fishe... "They might as well say get younger, because that's how easy it is."
- gaius 10y ago
  I really doubt "getting fitter" increased the likelihood of a heart attack! If anything that probably gave her more time... As an aside, she played a character who had forgone the luxuries of "being a princess" for a life living in the field with the troops, fighting or training every day. I am not into this Hollywood body-shaming crap at all, but a character who lived that lifestyle would look tough and lean.
gokhan 10y ago
RIP. She is, of course, someone special for many of us because of her role in Star Wars. I guess we need to get used to the rapid loss of famous personalities in the future. Stars are not in short supply because media is good at finding extreme talent and injecting them into our special moments. I remember seeing her on the big screen when I was a kid. I also remember listening to Leonard Cohen with my then-girlfriend and now-wife, or dancing to George Michael songs with friends in my youth. I can think of many great artists, and relate them to special moments. I'll surely miss the ones I'll outlive when the day comes. 60 for Carrie Fisher (or 53 for George Michael, for example) is too young of an age to die. I wish a longer and healthier life for others who make unforgettable moments for us, the audience.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  People write about fantasies like Star Wars, but now also the mysterious girlfriend of Joliet "Jake" Blues has passed away. Yes, the big cohorts of baby boomers are now getting older and we'll see more obituaries.
  - stan_rogers 10y ago
    Just for correctness' sake, and to engage in utterly unnecessary and ultimately meaningless pedantry, it's the "Joliet" that should be in quotes. "Joliet Jake" was Jake Blues' nickname, taken from his frequent home away from home, Joliet Prison/Correctional Facility.
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      Thanks, yes, I mis-typed. And originally, I think the names are related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant in Elwood, south of Joliet, Illinois.
  - squozzer 10y ago
    She was a prepper pin-up before either prepper or its older incarnation "survivalist" (Think Burt Gummer in Tremors) were known to the language. "I remained celibate for you." in all black with an AR15. Not a bad runner-up to her scene as Jaba's concubine.
msie 10y ago
So nothing can be done for someone with a weak heart? Perhaps the medical team was waiting for a transplant?
- goda90 10y ago
  She may have experienced a lot of brain damage, so even a functioning heart wouldn't keep her alive.
  - msie 10y ago
    Thanks, this agrees with what I read elsewhere.
- pjc50 10y ago
  I think the short answer is sadly no. Heart attacks are one of the more common causes of death. Resuscitation isn't always possible.
- JshWright 10y ago
  She has spoken publicly about her struggles with cocaine addiction. Significant cocaine use can do irreversible damage to the heart (I'm not suggesting that there was any recent use, just that use earlier in her life may have impaired her heart's ability to cope with the aging process).
  - BipolarElsa 10y ago
    It was without a doubt the gratuitous amounts of cocaine. Take Robin Williams: he had major heart surgery due to heavy cocaine use. The ramifications of 70s-level cocaine abuse is still being felt today.
CalChris 10y ago
As a friend put it more eloquently, Fuck 2016.
- moron4hire 10y ago
  Really getting sick of this meme. There hasn't been anything particularly special about this year. Say nothing about years being arbitrary means by which to group deaths of people.
  - braymundo 10y ago
    We are not robots. Perceptions matter.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    > There hasn't been anything particularly special about this year. For you, perhaps.
    - moron4hire 10y ago
      Actually, for me this year has been one of the greatest years of my life. So to see people say "fuck <the year in which my son was born>" over B-list celebrities, yes, it can be a bit of a problem. Where were all these not-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher fans before she died? Where were these George Michael fans before he died? This is not to say they aren't deserving of being mourned. This is to say, the people who take 5 seconds to post on social media are transparent and only cheapen the mourning of these people's real families.
      - coldtea 10y ago
        >So to see people say "fuck <the year in which my son was born>" over B-list celebrities, yes, it can be a bit of a problem. Because it's all about you? People who say that don't know whether your son was born, and could not care less. >Where were all these not-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher fans before she died? Where were these George Michael fans before he died? Buying millions of CDs for decades and filling in stadiums? Heck, Wham! are even presented as the "greatest band ever" in Deadpool, a 2016 movie.
ilamont 10y ago
There was a great interview with Carrie on Fresh Air last month as she promoted her memoir. She had a difficult relationship with the press over the decades, but in this interview she came across as a funny, caring, and interesting person. Take some time to listen to it: http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2016/11/28/503602884/fresh-air-for-november-28-2016 http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2016/11/28/503602884/f...
doxcf434 10y ago
HRH Prince William ‏@DukeCambridgeUK Condolences from the House of Windsor to the House Organa. RIP HRH Princess Leia. https://goo.gl/8TqY8Y https://goo.gl/8TqY8Y
- jcomis 10y ago
  That's not a real account...
  - colemickens 10y ago
    People can't even tell when a Twitter account is fake (even when the bio clearly says "fictional") and yet somehow people think that we can trust the masses to discern fake news. Ugh.
    - PopsiclePete 10y ago
      Terrifying, isn't it.
      - SEJeff 10y ago
        The most terrifying part (to me), is that those people vote!
KillerRAK 10y ago
Stop with the 2016 nonsense... get a grip. Death is the next baby-boomer surge. Because there are so many celebrities in this group, we'll see daily death announcements in the coming years that will make 2016 look like a picnic.
- jedberg 10y ago
  Thank you. And honestly if you look at wikipedia's notable deaths and IMDB's, 2016 was actually a light year. 2015 and 2014 both had more per day.
  - egillie 10y ago
    I think what happened was that Bowie and Alan Rickman both died in the first two weeks of 2016 so the meme started then and everything after was just confirmation bias.
    - thrillgore 10y ago
      I'd say it a mix of confirmation bias and the number of high profile events with negative correlation that have occurred (that aren't celebrities/fame worthy individuals dying). Personally its the number of outright confusing/heartbreaking global events such as Aleppo, Brexit, the Trump election/"presidency," that has made the year seem particularly unbearable. Losing Carrie Fisher, George Michael, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, among others just gives more reflection to how bad it's felt, not if its actually a bad year statistically.
- the_af 10y ago
  I think everyone understands this. It's simply a way to grieve for the many things that some us think went horribly wrong in 2016, including -- but not limited to -- the deaths of some high profile and well-loved artists, musicians and actors. Personally I'm also lumping some political events in 2016's trainwreck. Call it dark humor. No-one truly believes 2016 is sentient and murdering people.
erbo 10y ago
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/ http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/
Keyframe 10y ago
Rest in peace. With George Michael passing, and now Carrie Fisher - it makes me think of the rule of '3'. It always crops up.
- coldtea 10y ago
  What rule of 3? Tons of other celebrities died this year.
  - Keyframe 10y ago
    As a group within a short timespan.
kj01a 10y ago
This is sad. For Star Wars fans, and for her friends and family, but the worst part is Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds, is still alive at 84.
- grzm 10y ago
  Sad to say Debbie Reynolds has passed away, the day after her daughter. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/movies/debbie-reynolds-dead.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/movies/debbie-reynolds-...
protomyth 10y ago
Her book Wistful Drinking was very good, funny, and sad. Recommend, particularly the audiobook since she narrates herself. [edit: what kind of person down votes a book written by the deceased?]
DoodleBuggy 10y ago
Source, minus The Verge content regurgitation: http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/23/carrie-fisher-heart-attack-plane/ http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/23/carrie-fisher-heart-attack-pla...
appleflaxen 10y ago
I think items like this, which have no relationship to the VC or tech space, are complete noise on HN. I understand that the culture of celebrity tickles a primitive part of our brains, and that it's impossible to prevent on a site like reddit. But it bothers me more than it should to see this drivel on a site driven by technophiles. Why is this death any more significant than any other human being who wasn't lucky enough to be in show business? Based on the comments and voting, though, I appear to be an extreme outlier in this opinion.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  drivel on a site driven by technophiles A lot of people became technophiles because of the cultural influence of films like Star Wars. Perhaps you haven't noticed how every new claim of holographic display technology, for example, is held up against the imaginary example from that film. Star Wars was unique for its time in presenting the future as combining both breathtakingly advanced technology with industrial decay and totalitarian oppression. The series also signaled a dramatic change in how women were portrayed on screen. The dominant communication medium has substantial power to shape society. While the on-screen technology is fictional, the Star Wars series was also hugely innovative in terms of film production technology, giving rise to modern video editing software, sound design techniques, and many digital workflow techniques. It's had a massive impact on film technology and everything to do with it.
  - krapp 10y ago
    If this thread were about the effect of Star Wars on technology and tech culture, it would be on topic. But the death of a celebrity is exactly the sort of mainstream, intellectually vacant news that this site is supposed to avoid. The death of a woman who was chained in a bikini to a pretend space slug gets this much attention, but the death of the woman who confirmed the existence of dark matter in the actual, not fictional universe is barely being discussed, on what's supposed to be a forum that values substantive intellectual content over trivia.
  - appleflaxen 10y ago
    > The dominant communication medium has substantial power to shape society. yeah, that's kind of my complaint. we give these individuals an oversized amount of influence over public decisions. should jenny macarthy really be the one who advises us about vaccinations? IMO: no. And if jenny mccarthy doesn't deserve reverence, why does carrie fisher? because her role was in a different film? that doesn't even make sense.

428 points by antr 10y ago

I really thought she was gonna pull out of it this time. Geez.

This is sad. My condolences to her family and friends. At least this was after the Star Wars: Rogue One movie. Edit: I think the downvotes misunderstood the intent of my comment. I'm glad she was able to enjoy the new Star Wars movie, and I'm glad her friends, fans, and family also were able to enjoy it without mourning.

oxide 10y ago
>At least this was after the Star Wars: Rogue One movie. huh? why would that matter?
- rhapsodic 10y ago
  > huh? why would that matter? Well, it's nice that she lived long enough to see the part that her character played in the movie, and that her family was able to enjoy it for a brief time without her death casting a pall over it.
  - melling 10y ago
    Someone else played that part. It was done with cg.
  - sandworm101 10y ago
    Really? An aging actress might not be too happy seeing the highlight of her career replaced by a combination of stand-in teenagers and cgi.
    - tbirrell 10y ago
      I doubt this is an issue since everyone knows that no one can replace Carrie Fisher as Leia.
      - sandworm101 10y ago
        Except for the younger generations for whom rogue1 might be their first sw movie. I run into kids every day who dont know the originals. It makes me feel very old.
    - danso 10y ago
      Fisher has always seemed to have a mature, nuanced take on what the role of Leia meant in her life. Both a love that she got her life transformed, coupled with the bemused resentment of people's expectations and the reality of being an aging actress. Hard to imagine she was terribly bitter about Rogue One. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-carrie-fisher-obit-20161227-story.html http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-carrie-... When some moviegoers complained on social media about how much older she looked in “The Force Awakens” than when she had last played the character more than three decades earlier, she retorted on Twitter with her typical sharp wit, “Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately it hurts all 3 of my feelings.”... ...“It's not always fun, but it’s certainly life-changing,” she told The Times last year. “I have been Princess Leia exclusively. It’s been a part of my life for 40 years…. I’m like the diplomat to a country that I haven’t been to yet. I am that country.”
      - sandworm101 10y ago
        What a contracted actor says in interviews should always be taken with a grain of salt. These are professionals.
        theshrike79 10y ago
        Have you even seen a Carrie Fisher interview? She doesn't have many filters in what she says :)
  - techwizrd 10y ago
    Well put. She was able to enjoy the new movie, and so were her friends, fans, and family. It would be even sadder had she not gotten a chance to enjoy a new installment to a franchise she has contributed so much to.
  - djsumdog 10y ago
    It's just a movie. It's like that old saying, "No body every said on their death bed, 'I wish I had spent more time in the office.'
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      But she was an actor; this was the thing that she chose to spend her life doing, and something she loved doing. She wasn't collating expense reports - she was doing something very creative, with like-minded people, to create something enjoyed by millions of people world-wide. I bet there are plenty of actors who said, on their death bed, "I wish I had spent more time on stage".

pyed 10y ago

2016 man, 2016.

stevekemp 10y ago
It hasn't been such a bad year, really. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38329740 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38329740
- coldpie 10y ago
  The celebrity deaths have been rough, but I think the political success of racism, hate and fear has been at least equally depressing this year. It's been a bad year.
- k__ 10y ago
  TL;DR "2016 has seen the largest number of famous people die"

Insanity 10y ago

May she rest in piece. I also thought she was going to pull through this. A loss for the film industry but moreso for her family :-(

LoSboccacc 10y ago

I thought all planes had to have on board defribillators?

zouhair 10y ago
Defibrillators do mostly nothing for heart attacks.
- JshWright 10y ago
  The term "heart attack" is often mistakenly applied to cardiac arrest. Defibrillation is only useful in (some) cases of cardiac arrest.
CarpetBench 10y ago
AEDs (defibrillators) are only good for specific types of cardiac conditions. Since they were performing CPR on her, it's likely she had a very weak or no heartbeat (asystole), which defibrillators are no good with. Defibrillators are only good when your heart is working erratically, not when it doesn't work at all.
- JshWright 10y ago
  Defibrillators are used in cases of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. These are lethal heart rhythms where the heart is either quivering uselessly, or beating too fast to allow the heart to fill with blood between beats. In both of those cases, the patient will have no pulse. A defibrillator will never shock someone who has a pulse (weak or otherwise). Asystole is when there is no electrical activity in the heart. You are correct that that asystole cannot be shocked, but it definitely won't result in a 'weak' heartbeat (nor should you do CPR on someone with a weak pulse).
  - CarpetBench 10y ago
    > nor should you do CPR on someone with a weak pulse Absolutely untrue. CPR is recommended by the AHA for anyone who isn't breathing, regardless of whether they have a pulse [0]. By "she may have had a weak pulse", I mean that she may have had a weak pulse that wasn't felt. That's not asystole technically, but it results in the same treatment. Emergency situations are, understandably, high-adrenaline scenarios and mistakes get made. Even professionals aren't great at detecting carotid pulses properly all the time [1]. > In both of those cases, the patient will have no pulse Absolutely untrue as well. Only VF is pulseless. VT can present both ways [2]. 0: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/122/18_suppl_3/S640 http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/122/18_suppl_3/S640 1: http://www.emsworld.com/article/10320480/the-vital-signs-part-2-pulse http://www.emsworld.com/article/10320480/the-vital-signs-par... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_tachycardia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_tachycardia

messutied 10y ago

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not." -Master Yoda May the Force be with you Princess Source: a Reddit comment [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5kkzmo/comment/dbonl3d?st=IX7UB1IO&sh=1c85e406 https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5kkzmo/comment/dbon...

Vaskivo 10y ago
That... hit way harder than it should. Thank you.
mentat2737 10y ago
She is one with the Force, the Force is with her. source: the comments in that thread.
- daveguy 10y ago
  > source: the comments in that thread ... and the new Rogue One movie. If you haven't seen it -- it is worth watching.
  - therealdrag0 10y ago
    I thought it sucked. Sure it's pretty and it's StarWars universe, but I would have been happy to not see it.
  - mentat2737 10y ago
    Watched two days ago. Lovely, I really liked it.
azatris 10y ago
Except it's blatantly unrealistic. Death is not 'a part of life', but a nuisance. Not all species 'die' (e.g. jellyfish, hydra, possibly lobsters, flatworms). And 'the Force' is fictional and does not apply to Carrie Fisher. As long as we have our species, it is enevitable we will be achieving immortality. My point being - every death is a tragedy.

doppp 10y ago

I am genuinely heartbroken. Rest in peace. :(

eganist 10y ago

Condolences to her family and to the wider Star Wars community. On a film-related note: I'm assuming any role she might've had in Episode 8 might've already been shot since the film is in post production, but given that she's passed away and (I figure) Leia almost certainly won't be recast, how might Disney rejigger the storyline going forward? Furious 7 handled Paul Walker's death through CG and the use of Paul's brother to stand in for missing shots, but that was to close out a single film rather than to adjust for broader plot gaps in an overarching series.

melling 10y ago
You didn't see Rouge One? There's an actor who's been dead for 20 years. Carrie Fisher didn't play her part.
- TylerE 10y ago
  And it looked bloody awful! Talk about uncanny valley!
  - arrosenberg 10y ago
    I was thinking the younger characters are probably harder to do because they can't hide the flaws anywhere. Leia was very creepy in Rogue One, but it didn't even occur to me that Peter Cushing had died 20 years ago until after I finished watching the movie. His recreation was very good.
    - JonnieCache 10y ago
      I thought it looked like a PS4 cutscene tbh. I think if you play video games then you're primed to notice the facial animation techniques.
      - thefalcon 10y ago
        Yes, I couldn't help but feel like they were very well rendered video game characters surrounded by live actors, and I had to force myself back into the movie. I still have no idea what happened in the first scene Tarkin appears in.

greedo 10y ago

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter - Yoda

danso 10y ago

Awful news. 60 is young, but as Fisher herself has noted, she's lived a pretty hard life when it came to drugs and alcohol. Her reported weight loss regiment for Star Wars VII couldn't have helped [0] I'm glad she lived long enough to get her new memoir out. Sounds like a must-read, with her affair with Harrison Ford being the least interesting part of how she dealt with Star Wars at the age of 19 http://themuse.jezebel.com/carrie-fisher-fucks-han-solo-fights-princess-leia-and-1789369256 http://themuse.jezebel.com/carrie-fisher-fucks-han-solo-figh... [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/carrie-fisher-pressured-to-lose-weight-for-the-force-awakens-2015-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/carrie-fisher-pressured-to-lo...

lucky_cloud 10y ago
"To lose the weight, she watched what she ate and exercised more." Watching caloric intake and exercising tends to decrease your chances of heart attack.
- danso 10y ago
  I addressed that in a longer comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13265439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13265439 tldr: Fisher had plenty of experience in losing weight, even being Jenny Craig's spokesperson in 2011. For her to have been publicly denigrating TFA at the time of its release (even before it, IIRC), doesn't make it sound like it was the healthy kind of weight loss: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/carrie-fisher-talks-losing-35-pounds-force-awakens-article-1.2451740 http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/carrie-fishe... "They might as well say get younger, because that's how easy it is."
gaius 10y ago
I really doubt "getting fitter" increased the likelihood of a heart attack! If anything that probably gave her more time... As an aside, she played a character who had forgone the luxuries of "being a princess" for a life living in the field with the troops, fighting or training every day. I am not into this Hollywood body-shaming crap at all, but a character who lived that lifestyle would look tough and lean.

gokhan 10y ago

RIP. She is, of course, someone special for many of us because of her role in Star Wars. I guess we need to get used to the rapid loss of famous personalities in the future. Stars are not in short supply because media is good at finding extreme talent and injecting them into our special moments. I remember seeing her on the big screen when I was a kid. I also remember listening to Leonard Cohen with my then-girlfriend and now-wife, or dancing to George Michael songs with friends in my youth. I can think of many great artists, and relate them to special moments. I'll surely miss the ones I'll outlive when the day comes. 60 for Carrie Fisher (or 53 for George Michael, for example) is too young of an age to die. I wish a longer and healthier life for others who make unforgettable moments for us, the audience.

ptaipale 10y ago
People write about fantasies like Star Wars, but now also the mysterious girlfriend of Joliet "Jake" Blues has passed away. Yes, the big cohorts of baby boomers are now getting older and we'll see more obituaries.
- stan_rogers 10y ago
  Just for correctness' sake, and to engage in utterly unnecessary and ultimately meaningless pedantry, it's the "Joliet" that should be in quotes. "Joliet Jake" was Jake Blues' nickname, taken from his frequent home away from home, Joliet Prison/Correctional Facility.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    Thanks, yes, I mis-typed. And originally, I think the names are related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant in Elwood, south of Joliet, Illinois.
- squozzer 10y ago
  She was a prepper pin-up before either prepper or its older incarnation "survivalist" (Think Burt Gummer in Tremors) were known to the language. "I remained celibate for you." in all black with an AR15. Not a bad runner-up to her scene as Jaba's concubine.

msie 10y ago

So nothing can be done for someone with a weak heart? Perhaps the medical team was waiting for a transplant?

goda90 10y ago
She may have experienced a lot of brain damage, so even a functioning heart wouldn't keep her alive.
- msie 10y ago
  Thanks, this agrees with what I read elsewhere.
pjc50 10y ago
I think the short answer is sadly no. Heart attacks are one of the more common causes of death. Resuscitation isn't always possible.
JshWright 10y ago
She has spoken publicly about her struggles with cocaine addiction. Significant cocaine use can do irreversible damage to the heart (I'm not suggesting that there was any recent use, just that use earlier in her life may have impaired her heart's ability to cope with the aging process).
- BipolarElsa 10y ago
  It was without a doubt the gratuitous amounts of cocaine. Take Robin Williams: he had major heart surgery due to heavy cocaine use. The ramifications of 70s-level cocaine abuse is still being felt today.

CalChris 10y ago

As a friend put it more eloquently, Fuck 2016.

moron4hire 10y ago
Really getting sick of this meme. There hasn't been anything particularly special about this year. Say nothing about years being arbitrary means by which to group deaths of people.
- braymundo 10y ago
  We are not robots. Perceptions matter.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  > There hasn't been anything particularly special about this year. For you, perhaps.
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    Actually, for me this year has been one of the greatest years of my life. So to see people say "fuck <the year in which my son was born>" over B-list celebrities, yes, it can be a bit of a problem. Where were all these not-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher fans before she died? Where were these George Michael fans before he died? This is not to say they aren't deserving of being mourned. This is to say, the people who take 5 seconds to post on social media are transparent and only cheapen the mourning of these people's real families.
    - coldtea 10y ago
      >So to see people say "fuck <the year in which my son was born>" over B-list celebrities, yes, it can be a bit of a problem. Because it's all about you? People who say that don't know whether your son was born, and could not care less. >Where were all these not-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher fans before she died? Where were these George Michael fans before he died? Buying millions of CDs for decades and filling in stadiums? Heck, Wham! are even presented as the "greatest band ever" in Deadpool, a 2016 movie.

ilamont 10y ago

There was a great interview with Carrie on Fresh Air last month as she promoted her memoir. She had a difficult relationship with the press over the decades, but in this interview she came across as a funny, caring, and interesting person. Take some time to listen to it: http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2016/11/28/503602884/fresh-air-for-november-28-2016 http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2016/11/28/503602884/f...

doxcf434 10y ago

HRH Prince William ‏@DukeCambridgeUK Condolences from the House of Windsor to the House Organa. RIP HRH Princess Leia. https://goo.gl/8TqY8Y https://goo.gl/8TqY8Y

jcomis 10y ago
That's not a real account...
- colemickens 10y ago
  People can't even tell when a Twitter account is fake (even when the bio clearly says "fictional") and yet somehow people think that we can trust the masses to discern fake news. Ugh.
  - PopsiclePete 10y ago
    Terrifying, isn't it.
    - SEJeff 10y ago
      The most terrifying part (to me), is that those people vote!

KillerRAK 10y ago

Stop with the 2016 nonsense... get a grip. Death is the next baby-boomer surge. Because there are so many celebrities in this group, we'll see daily death announcements in the coming years that will make 2016 look like a picnic.

jedberg 10y ago
Thank you. And honestly if you look at wikipedia's notable deaths and IMDB's, 2016 was actually a light year. 2015 and 2014 both had more per day.
- egillie 10y ago
  I think what happened was that Bowie and Alan Rickman both died in the first two weeks of 2016 so the meme started then and everything after was just confirmation bias.
  - thrillgore 10y ago
    I'd say it a mix of confirmation bias and the number of high profile events with negative correlation that have occurred (that aren't celebrities/fame worthy individuals dying). Personally its the number of outright confusing/heartbreaking global events such as Aleppo, Brexit, the Trump election/"presidency," that has made the year seem particularly unbearable. Losing Carrie Fisher, George Michael, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, among others just gives more reflection to how bad it's felt, not if its actually a bad year statistically.
the_af 10y ago
I think everyone understands this. It's simply a way to grieve for the many things that some us think went horribly wrong in 2016, including -- but not limited to -- the deaths of some high profile and well-loved artists, musicians and actors. Personally I'm also lumping some political events in 2016's trainwreck. Call it dark humor. No-one truly believes 2016 is sentient and murdering people.

erbo 10y ago

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/ http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Keyframe 10y ago

Rest in peace. With George Michael passing, and now Carrie Fisher - it makes me think of the rule of '3'. It always crops up.

coldtea 10y ago
What rule of 3? Tons of other celebrities died this year.
- Keyframe 10y ago
  As a group within a short timespan.

kj01a 10y ago

This is sad. For Star Wars fans, and for her friends and family, but the worst part is Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds, is still alive at 84.

grzm 10y ago
Sad to say Debbie Reynolds has passed away, the day after her daughter. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/movies/debbie-reynolds-dead.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/movies/debbie-reynolds-...

protomyth 10y ago

Her book Wistful Drinking was very good, funny, and sad. Recommend, particularly the audiobook since she narrates herself. [edit: what kind of person down votes a book written by the deceased?]

DoodleBuggy 10y ago

Source, minus The Verge content regurgitation: http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/23/carrie-fisher-heart-attack-plane/ http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/23/carrie-fisher-heart-attack-pla...

appleflaxen 10y ago

I think items like this, which have no relationship to the VC or tech space, are complete noise on HN. I understand that the culture of celebrity tickles a primitive part of our brains, and that it's impossible to prevent on a site like reddit. But it bothers me more than it should to see this drivel on a site driven by technophiles. Why is this death any more significant than any other human being who wasn't lucky enough to be in show business? Based on the comments and voting, though, I appear to be an extreme outlier in this opinion.

anigbrowl 10y ago
drivel on a site driven by technophiles A lot of people became technophiles because of the cultural influence of films like Star Wars. Perhaps you haven't noticed how every new claim of holographic display technology, for example, is held up against the imaginary example from that film. Star Wars was unique for its time in presenting the future as combining both breathtakingly advanced technology with industrial decay and totalitarian oppression. The series also signaled a dramatic change in how women were portrayed on screen. The dominant communication medium has substantial power to shape society. While the on-screen technology is fictional, the Star Wars series was also hugely innovative in terms of film production technology, giving rise to modern video editing software, sound design techniques, and many digital workflow techniques. It's had a massive impact on film technology and everything to do with it.
- krapp 10y ago
  If this thread were about the effect of Star Wars on technology and tech culture, it would be on topic. But the death of a celebrity is exactly the sort of mainstream, intellectually vacant news that this site is supposed to avoid. The death of a woman who was chained in a bikini to a pretend space slug gets this much attention, but the death of the woman who confirmed the existence of dark matter in the actual, not fictional universe is barely being discussed, on what's supposed to be a forum that values substantive intellectual content over trivia.
- appleflaxen 10y ago
  > The dominant communication medium has substantial power to shape society. yeah, that's kind of my complaint. we give these individuals an oversized amount of influence over public decisions. should jenny macarthy really be the one who advises us about vaccinations? IMO: no. And if jenny mccarthy doesn't deserve reverence, why does carrie fisher? because her role was in a different film? that doesn't even make sense.