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Carrie Fisher Honored on “Star Wars” Day with Walk of Fame Star

Six and a half years after her untimely death, beloved Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher got her long overdue Hollywood Walk of Fame star – and on Star Wars Day.

The posthumous honor on the famed Los Angeles tourist attraction made Fisher forever commemorated with a star near the historic El Capitan Theatre, steps away from those of fellow Star Wars co-stars Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo, and Mark Hamill, who played Princess Leia’s twin brother Luke Skywalker.

“Carrie was one of a kind, she belonged to us all, whether we liked it or not. She was our princess, damn it!” lamented an emotional Hamill at the unveiling ceremony as he read a note he wrote shortly after his cinematic sister passed away in December 2016.

 

“And the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fearlessly independent, ferociously funny, take-charge woman who took our collective breath away. Determined and tough, but with a vulnerability that made you root for her and want her to succeed and be happy. She played such a crucial role in my professional and personal life. Both would’ve been far emptier without her. Was she a handful? Was she high maintenance? No doubt! But everything would’ve been so much drabber and less interesting if she hadn’t been the friend that she was. I’ll never stop missing her, but I’m so thankful we had her as long as we did. I’m grateful for the laughter, the wisdom, the kindness, and even the bratty, self-indulgent crap my beloved space twin drove me crazy with through the years. So, thank you, Carrie. I love you.”

Fisher’s only daughter, actress Billie Lourd, born during her relationship with talent agent Bryan Lourd (who was also in attendance at the ceremony), and known for her roles on such television shows as Scream Queens and American Horror Story, accepted the honor on her mother’s behalf at the ceremony.

“You aren’t actually famous until you get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which I guess is kind of weird because people in most places tend to avoid walking all over them, but in this weird little town, the pinnacle of fame is getting people to walk all over you,” said Lourd, donning a special dress with an image of her mother as Princess Leia on it. Lourd had a minor role in the Star Wars saga’s sequel trilogy in recent years, which also marked Fisher’s last on-screen appearance.

“Like most kids, I grew up thinking my mom was a little bit — okay, a lot — embarrassing. She tried to alter my opinion by showing me this cool movie she was in called Star Wars,” Lourd told the crowd of guests and adoring fans, saying she finally watched the movie after boys told her they fantasied about her mom. “That day, staring at the screen, I realized no one is or will ever be as hot or as cool as Princess Leia.”

Lourd added that accompanying her mom to fan conventions made her realize her impact and that “Leia is more than just a character. She’s a feeling. She is strength. She is grace. She is wit. She is femininity at its finest. She knows what she wants, and she gets it. She doesn’t need anyone to rescue her, because she rescues herself — and even rescues the rescuers. And no one could’ve played her like my mother.”

Before the star was unveiled on the Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk, Lourd explained that Fisher was more than just her character, and also “a closeted quadruple threat. She could sing, she could dance, she could act and she was an absolutely beyond brilliant writer, from her texts to her Twitter to the notes she wrote me to get out of school to her scripts to the seven books she wrote – I have never known anyone wittier.”

Lourd concluded she can’t wait to pass the torch, or rather the lightsaber, to her own children, before finishing her speech by saying, “My mom was glitter. She covered her world with it both literally and metaphorically. She left a mark of her sparkle on everyone she met.”

The event took place on the annual day fans celebrate the epic space opera film franchise created by George Lucas, which premiered 46 years ago. A play on the franchise’s popular quote “May the Force Be With You,” the May 4 calendar pun surprisingly became an unofficial holiday when in 1979 the Conservative Party in the UK placed an ad in the newspaper congratulating the then-newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which read: “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations!”

With Fisher’s Hollywood star in place, fans now have another celebration added to their special holiday.