Star Wars creator George Lucas is mourning the death of his longtime friend and leading lady Carrie Fisher. 
 
 “Carrie and I have been friends most of our adult lives,” he said in a statement to PEOPLE. “She was extremely smart; a talented actress, writer and comedienne with a very colorful personality that everyone loved. In Star Wars she was our great and powerful princess – feisty, wise and full of hope in a role that was more difficult than most people might think.” 
 
 Get push notifications with news, features and more. 
 
 “My heart and prayers are with Billie, Debbie and all Carrie’s family, friends and fans. She will be missed by all,” the statement concludes. 
 
 Fisher, 60, was aboard an 11-hour flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday when she went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics removed her from the flight and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for a heart attack. She later died in the hospital. 
 
 Since her death, other members of the famous franchise have paid tribute to Fisher’s life and legacy. 
 
 “Carrie was one-of-a-kind…brilliant, original,” Harrison Ford said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely…My thoughts are with her daughter Billie, her mother Debbie, her brother Todd, and her many friends. We will all miss her.” 
 
 Her onscreen brother Mark Hamill, on the other hand, was speechless about the heartbreaking news of Fisher’s death: “No words #Devastated,” the actor tweeted alongside a photo of the two during their Star Wars years. 
 
 After him, several other Star Wars alums shared messages of love for Fisher on Twitter — including the actor who played Chewbacca. 
 
 There are no words for this loss. Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly. pic.twitter.com/GgIeYGeMt9 — Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) December 27, 2016 
 
 “There are no words for this loss,” said Peter Mayhew. “Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly.” ||||| Enlarge Image Lucasfilm 
 
 When I first saw Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in 1977's "Star Wars: A New Hope," she was fresh-faced and full of confidence and witty comebacks for the roguish rake Han Solo. 
 
 She didn't suffer fools gladly and she often battled Stormtroopers better than the fellas. She killed Jabba the Hutt with a chain, for crying out loud. 
 
 She was the perfect geek girl role model because she was no damsel in distress. Inspired by her, I wore my hair in Princess Leia buns in elementary school yearbook photos. 
 
 But Fisher, who died Tuesday at 60 after suffering a heart attack last week, impacted my life in much bigger ways than my childhood hairdo. And she was so much more than just a Star Wars icon. 
 
 She battled her own personal demons with courage and honesty. She gained strength and insight from her battles with drug and alcohol addiction and bipolar disorder and wrote about these struggles with wit in her memoirs and semi-autobiographical novels -- "Postcards from the Edge," "Wishful Drinking" and most recently, "The Princess Diarist." 
 
 I finally sought therapy to deal with depression after reading about her own mental health struggles. Her memoirs inspired me to write more personal essays. 
 
 In addition to her popular books, Fisher had a successful career as a script doctor during the '90s, working on such films as "Hook," "Sister Act," "Lethal Weapon 3" and "The Wedding Singer." 
 
 Since script doctors are rarely, if ever, credited on the films they save, many fans don't even realize the impact Fisher had on their favorite movies that don't involve lightsaber battles. Even Entertainment Weekly referred to Fisher as "one of the most sought after doctors in town." 
 
 I took screenwriting classes because I wanted to learn skills that Fisher had clearly put to good use as a script doctor. 
 
 Of course, Fisher is best known as Princess Leia from the Star Wars films, but she her acting went way beyond a galaxy far, far away. She made her mark acting in some stellar comedies including "Shampoo," "The Blues Brothers," "The Man with One Red Shoe," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "The 'Burbs" and "When Harry Met Sally." 
 
 Fisher also appeared on numerous popular TV series including "Sex in the City," "The Big Bang Theory," "Entourage," "Family Guy," "Robot Chicken," "30 Rock," "Weeds," "Smallville" and "Frasier," to name a few. 
 
 When I worked at Lucasfilm as a senior editor for the website StarWars.com, I was always honored when my path intersected with Fisher. Sometimes I'd be asked to walk her to panels at San Diego Comic-Con, or just make sure fans didn't get too unruly waiting in line for her autograph. 
 
 One of my favorite memories of Fisher is the time a twenty-something hipster came up to her at one of her Comic-Con signings and demanded she write something unique and personal on a photo of Fisher dressed in her iconic Slave Leia metal bikini. She winked and wrote, "Bite me." 
 
 She always had a funny quip or story and was thrilled when fans would lavish her beloved dog Gary -- who she took with her everywhere -- with love and affection. 
 
 Fisher didn't just pave the way for more beloved female Star Wars characters like Rey ("The Force Awakens") and Jyn Erso ("Rogue One") to inspire a new generation of fans, she also made me proud to be a geek girl who spoke her mind and went after her dreams no matter what challenges life threw my way. And for that I will always be grateful. 
 
 She will be missed, but her Force will be strong in my memory, always. ||||| Carrie Fisher’s death could be a windfall for Disney. 
 
 The entertainment company, the distributor of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and the next two films in the franchise, could receive $50 million thanks to an insurance policy the company took out in the event Fisher was unable to fulfill her three-film contract. 
 
 It’s set to be the largest single personal accident insurance claim payout ever, according to Insurance Insider. 
 
 Fisher reprised her career-making role of Princess Leia from the original 1977 “Star Wars” flick for the new trilogy. “The Force Awakens,” released in December 2015, made $2.068 billion at the box office worldwide. 
 
 Filming on “Episode VIII” was already complete at the time of Fisher’s death on Dec. 27 at the age of 60, after she suffered a heart attack aboard a flight from London to Los Angeles. 
 
 Fisher was due to appear in “Episode IX,” forcing the film’s creators to either rewrite the plot or possibly use visual effects to insert her in the film. The latter was implemented for “Rogue One,” in which the late Peter Cushing reprised his role as Grand Moff Tarkin. 
 
 It’s unclear if a similar insurance policy was taken out on Fisher’s co-star, Mark Hamill. 
 
 An autopsy Friday determined Fisher’s cause of death was “not obvious” and that further testing will be required, TMZ reported. 
 
 Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, passed away the day after her daughter’s death. She was 84 years old. 
 
 Hamill gave his first extended interview after the mother-daughter pair’s passing, calling the two “mothering types, both opinionated and determined.” 
 
 “I can’t think of [Fisher] in the past tense. I think of her in the present tense, in the future tense,” Hamill told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m angry and so sad.”
– Carrie Fisher is gone but she will live on through her books and movies—including Star Wars: Episode VIII, which won't be in theaters for almost a year. Sources tell the Wrap that the 60-year-old Fisher had completely finished filming her role and all necessary reshoots for the movie, in which she reprises her role as Princess Leia. It's not clear how her death will affect the future of the Star Wars series. George Lucas was among the many people paying tribute to Fisher on Tuesday. "She was extremely smart; a talented actress, writer and comedienne with a very colorful personality that everyone loved," he told People. "In Star Wars she was our great and powerful princess—feisty, wise and full of hope in a role that was more difficult than most people might think.” Harrison Ford was among the Star Wars co-stars with warm words for Fisher. "Carrie was one-of-a-kind…brilliant, original," he said. "Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely." Mark Hamill, at first, could only tweet that he was "devastated." In a follow-up tweet, he praised his "beloved space-twin." "She was OUR Princess, damn it, and the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fiercely independent and ferociously funny, take-charge woman who took our collective breath away." Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, tweeted photos of himself with Fisher over the years. "There are no words for this loss," he wrote. "Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly."