“Star Wars” fans were shocked to hear that Carrie Fisher, who brought Princess Leia to life in the franchise films, had suffered a heart attack Friday on a plane flying between London and Los Angeles. Emergency officials confirmed the news to the Los Angeles Times. The Los Angeles Fire Department rushed the actress, who is 60, at about a quarter past noon, shortly after the plane landed.
Sources said that producers of the Graham Norton show were shocked as she’s appeared on the hit chat show several times while in London promoting “Roge One: A Star Wars Story” and her latest autobiography “The Princess Diarist.”
“She looked and acted in great spirits every time she came here so were are all completely shocked by this and wish her a speedy recovery,” Graham Norton producers said.
The outspoken actress was hooked up to a ventilator at a California hospital following the mid-air medical emergency that left the actress unresponsive for more than 15 minutes, TMZ.com reported.
Fisher was flying from London to Los Angeles when she went into cardiac arrest roughly 15 minutes before landing.
A flight attendant called out for any medical personnel on board — prompting an EMT sitting in the back of the plane to rush to first-class to work on Fisher, the site reported.
Other United Airlines crewmembers and passengers joined the effort to save the Hollywood icon, who shot to stardom as Princess Leia.
The plane landed shortly after noon, and paramedics immediately began working to revive Fisher performing CPR.
“[Los Angeles Fire Department] paramedics were standing by for the plane’s arrival, provided advanced life support and aggressively treated and transported the patient to a local hospital,” fire department spokesman Erik Scott said.
But it took 15 minutes before the rescue workers were able to detect a pulse, TMZ.com reported.
Paramedics rushed her to UCLA Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition.
Fisher’s rep didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Filmmaker Anna Akana, who was apparently on board the flight, described a grim scene.
“Don’t know how else to process this but Carrie Fisher stopped breathing on the flight home,” Akana wrote. “Hope she’s gonna be OK.”
“She wasn’t breathing for 10 minutes or so,” Akana said in a subsequent tweet. “They were administering CPR up until we landed.”
Akana thanked the United flight crew “who jumped into action, and the awesome doctor and nurse passengers who helped.”
Actor Brad Gage, who said he was sitting next to Akana, also tweeted about the incident.
“I’m in complete shock,” Gage said.
“I don’t know what happened. Not really sure what to do right now but I hope she is ok. I hope she is ok.”
News of Fisher’s sudden medical crisis triggered an intergalactic outpouring of well wishes on social media.
Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, tweeted “thoughts and prayers for our friend and everyone’s favorite princess right now.”
Actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, also bared his pain.
“As if 2016 couldn’t get any worse…sending all our love to @carrieffisher,” he tweeted.
United Airlines confirmed the incident in a thinly-detailed statement that didn’t name Fisher.
“Medical personnel met United flight 935 from London to Los Angeles upon arrival today after the crew reported that a passenger was unresponsive,” the airline said. “Our thoughts are with our customer at this time.”
Fisher has spoken openly about her past struggles with LSD, cocaine and prescription pills.
The former wife of Paul Simon admitted to doing drugs to help cope with her bipolar disorder.
Fisher, who is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, rose to fame when her second movie – 1977’s Star Wars – became a box-office hit. She subsequently appeared in that film’s immediate sequels, as well as The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, The ‘Burbs, When Harry Met Sally and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, among others. She reprised her role as Leia in 2015’s Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens and is slated to appear in an eighth installment of the film series, which is slated to come out in December 2017.
She’s also written several novels, including the book and subsequent movie Postcards From the Edge, which touched on her poor relationship with her mother. She’s also written three nonfiction books, including Wishful Drinking – which she performed as a one-woman play – and this year’s The Princess Diarist.
The book — Fisher’s eighth — draws on her old diaries to describe her early days in show business.
In the book’s most explosive revelation, Fisher admits that she had an affair with her co-star and onscreen lover, Harrison Ford, while filming the Stars Wars franchise’s first installment in 1976.