Story highlights "It's like we were a family," Mark Hamill says of "Star Wars" twin

Carrie Fisher died last week at age 60 after a heart attack

(CNN) Carrie Fisher was a complicated handful, high maintenance and off the wall, but a treasured friend for decades, "Star Wars" co-star Mark Hamill writes in a tribute to the late actress-writer.

"Carrie and I occupied a unique area in each other's lives," Hamill recalls this week in a column for The Hollywood Reporter

"It was like we were in a garage band together that somehow hit it huge," Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the galactic film series, says about Fisher, who played his twin sister, Princess Leia. "We had no idea the impact 'Star Wars' would have on the world."

Hamill and Fisher with co-star Harrison Ford in the original "Star Wars" (1977).

They met filming the first movie in the 1970s, when she was 19 and he was 24, Hamill says. "I was just bowled over. I mean she was just so instantly ingratiating and funny and outspoken. She just sucked you into her world."

Hamill recalled Fisher loving life, with an "Auntie Mame quality" that he missed when they weren't filming together. "The lengths I would go to hear her laugh -- there were no limits."

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