Hollywood star Carrie Fisher - best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the wildly popular "Star Wars" films - died Tuesday, days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight. The 60-year-old actress had been in intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital after collapsing on the jetliner from London on Friday. "It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning," family spokesman Simon Halls told AFP in a statement on behalf of Fisher's daughter.

"She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly." Hopes had been raised for Fisher's recovery after her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, told her Twitter followers on Sunday her daughter was in stable condition. Fisher was catapulted to world-wide stardom as the royal rebel Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, which has been a cultural phenomenon since the release of the films from 1977 to 1983.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2016