(CNN) Carrie Fisher went into the family business, but that never stopped her from turning a jaundiced and very funny eye towards it.

The daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, who famously left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor, Fisher -- who died Tuesday at 60 years old -- achieved the sort of iconic success befitting show-business royalty by playing Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" movies.

Yet she always appeared a reluctant star, more comfortable in the role of court jester -- maintaining a sense of bemusement over both her upbringing and little items like the gold bikini she modeled in "Return of the Jedi," thoughts she articulated in free-wheeling fashion by writing about the absurdities of her privileged perch.

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 25, 2015. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Fisher began with the semi-autobiographical book "Postcards From the Edge," about an actress wrestling with addiction, which she later adapted into a movie that starred Meryl Streep. She also wrote and starred in a one-woman show, "Wishful Drinking," which became a 2010 HBO special that included a riotous rundown of her extended family tree.