Famous Libra People

John Lennon—10/9/40—and Paul McCartney were the most prolific songwriting team of their time, along with the other two members of the Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. These four men were the group that defined rock music in the 1960’s. John was raised mostly by his Aunt Mimi, who once told John, “You will never make money playing the guitar, John.” Many years later, rich and famous, he gave Aunt Mimi an expensive plaque with those words on it! John had the typical love of being in partnerships, as most Librans do. His first partner was Paul, when they began the Beatles. John married his first wife Cynthia at a young age when they were expecting their son Julian. As the Beatles grew apart and did more solo works, John met Asian artist Yoko Ono, and immediately felt intrigued by her. Eventually he left Cynthia to marry Yoko.

But although John liked partners, he was the leader of the Beatles, and usually the most outspoken one in the group. People tend to forget that Libra is a cardinal sign of leadership, and can let that Libra charm fool them. He enraged many people when he proclaimed “The Beatles were more famous than Jesus.” In this case, it was his Aries ascendant which made him speak out and get attention, probably without even thinking about what he was saying. Libra people are ruled by Venus, and John was very concerned about living in a world filled with violence and wars. Many of his songs and chants have lyrics which reveal this, such as "Revolution", "Imagine", "All You Need Is Love", and "Give Peace a Chance". Some thought that John was naïve, but he was a gutsy person who never shied away from stating his beliefs, even as he changed them. He was a person who evolved very much from the time he became famous, until his life was sadly shortened when he was shot in his beloved New York City, after fighting American officials for years to be allowed to live in the United States. John also had to fight authorities to marry Yoko, but finally did it in Spain near the Straits of Gibraltar, taking the name John Ono Lennon.

John also became a “house husband” before it was popular for men to stay home and raise their children, he loved spending his days at home in the Dakota with his and Yoko’s son Sean. John was just beginning to make a comeback with his Starting Over album when he was killed, and it would have been wonderful to see what directions he would have taken had his life been longer. At least we are left with the legacy of his huge body of music, which is always very open about his feelings. It is almost comical that G. Gordon Liddy, and then President Richard Nixon, thought John was such a threat to American security that they were openly spying on him. Yoko Ono had a beautiful memorial to John made in an area of Central Park in NYC named Strawberry Fields, after one of his most well-liked songs. It is a huge circle with just the word “Imagine” on it. One can visit it at any time of the year, and find it strewn with flowers, and filled with people remembering John by carrying candles, singing his songs, and shedding a few tears too. The image of that one word, which always evokes a mental picture of John, is that powerful.

Carrie Fisher—10/21/56-12/27/16 was the well known actress who played the part of Princess Leia in the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, and continued the role in Episodes 7 and 8. She was also a novelist, screenwriter, and performance artist. She re-wrote movie scripts, or is what is called “a script doctor,” tweaking the speaking parts to make them more realistic for many of her Hollywood friends in the movie business. Fisher did this for The Wedding Singer, Sister Act, and was hired by George Lucas to help out with the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Carrie made her movie debut in a film called Shampoo, but her big break was when she got the part of Princess Leia from George Lucas in 1977. She did not think the film would be that great at the time, but it did become a success, spawning two more movies, and then three prequels. Carrie is mostly remembered as the sexy starlet in the metal bikini, and has openly said she wishes she did not accept the part, although she remains close with the others in the films, and probably makes a fortune from merchandising of Princess Leia toys. The film also made her an international star and sex symbol.

Carrie Fisher’s first novel was Postcards From the Edge, published in 1977, which was a semi-autobiographical satire about her drug and drinking problems. It was a bestseller. Fisher also played a supporting role in When Harry Met Sally, and played Tom Hank’s wife in The Burbs, in 1987. She starred in the movie version of Postcards From the Edge in 1990, adapted for the screen and starring Fisher, Meryl Streep, Shirley McClaine and Dennis Quaid. She was in Drop Dead Fred, and played a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997. Then she published two more books, Surrender the Pink and Delusions of Grandma. Much of what she writes hints at a difficult relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, who was America’s Sweetheart in the 1950’s, definitely a contrast to Carrie’s open battles with drugs and mental illness.

Carrie Fisher dated and married Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel, and even dated him for a year or so after they divorced in 1983. He discusses this in some of his songs on his album, Rhythm of the Saints. She has a daughter with casting agent Bryan Lourd, Billie, but Lourd left her when he fell in love with a man. Carrie has openly discussed her issues with recreational drugs and her bi-polar disorder. She also had problems with prescription drug medications. She has undergone electroconvulsive therapy, and admits there are people who were once part of her life that she cannot remember.

Carrie also wrote Wishful Drinking and has discussed it on various talk shows. She still undergoes treatment for her condition every six weeks. She also admitted to a cocaine addiction during the filming of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and thankfully recovered from an overdose. She apparently was not yet ready to be thrust into the limelight so quickly when Star Wars became such an overnight success. She says that although she cannot recall many things, she can remember every single word of “Help me Obi One, you are our only hope,” the message that comes from R2D2 the droid, when she is trying to save her home planet in the movie.

Carrie Fisher did come back to Star Wars for Episode 7, although many were mean spirited and said she didn't age well. She also completed all her scenes in Episode 8. She published another book, The Princess Diarist, where she admits to having an affair with Harrison Ford when she was filming the first Star Wars film with him in London. She was only 19 at the time, and Ford was married with 2 children, and 34 years old. When Carrie told Harrison Ford she planned to publish her memoir of the affair, he threatened a lawsuit. She wrote a lot of poetry about him, finding him very hard to understand. She later said it was like having a "one night stand" for several months. Also, Carrie Fisher's outlook on her Princess Leia role seemed to have softened.

Carrie went into cardiac arrest on board a transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles on Christmas Day, and apparently never regained consciousness, passing away 12/27/16, at the age of 60. In a very sad twist, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died the next day, 12/28/16, at age of 84, probably from the shock of a broken heart.

Carrie Fisher will be sorely missed, as a great actress, writer, and script doctor. She had completed all her work on the Star Wars movies, as she and Harrison Ford were stepping aside to make room for younger actors in the franchise. Ford has released a statement of condolence, praising her acting abilities. Carrie said in her last book, Ford once told her, "She had the eyes of a doe, and the balls of a Samurai." Princess Leia will live on in the hearts of all Star Wars fans, and a whole new generation to come.

Mark Hamill is a Libra born on 9/25/51, but fans know him best as Luke Skywalker. Do you think he ever dreamed what fame would come to him for playing that role? Thanks to George Lucas and his carefully thought out masterpieces, saw a brief shot of Hamill again in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Episode VII. This latest trilogy in the series, along with familiar cast members Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, was in theaters at the end of 2015. A long time has passed, everyone must have to hit the gym to get ready for the roles! As a movie fan who “met” these characters in the first trilogy, it was hard to like the prequels at first. Then one weekend, after watching all six movies in a marathon, the true genius of Lucas’ story was even more obvious than before.

Mark Hamill is one of seven children raised in a military family, so moved around a lot as a child. Eventually, he ended up in Los Angeles, CA, where he began to attend drama school. His friend Robert Englund was auditioning for a part in Apocalypse Now, as actors were being cast for the Star Wars Trilogy, Parts 4-6. He realized Mark would be perfect for the part of Luke Skywalker, and he won the role. But what has he been doing since then?

Hamill has become a well respected voice actor, and really enjoys the roles. He is best known as the voice of The Joker, Batman’s archenemy, and this led to other voice overs, mainly as villainous bad men. He was the Hobgoblin in Spiderman cartoons, the Gargoyle in The Incredible Hulk, and Maximus in the Fantastic Four. A big fan of The Simpsons, Hamill had the honor of voicing in the episode, “Mayored to the Mob.” In 2010 he voiced Dante’s father in an anime version of Dante’s Inferno, and even returned to The Clone Wars in 2014 as Darth Bane. Hamill also does voice over work in many video games, among them, Wing Commander and Batman: Arkham Asylum—also the sequel Arkman City, where he voices The Joker, and won the British Academy Video Game Award.

Mark also enjoys writing, and co-wrote The Black Pearl, a miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics. He wrote the intro to the trade paperback Batman: Riddler Two-Face, which reprints certain stories revolving around The Riddler and Two-Face to tie in with the Batman series. He also writes for Simpson Comics, and parodies other well known comics.

Mark married Marylou York in 1978, and the two have remained together. They have three grown children. Their youngest, Nathan, had a cameo role in The Phantom Menace. In 1977, Mark was in a bad car accident which left scars on his left cheekbone and broke his nose. The studio let some of the scars show through in The Empire Strikes Back, but apparently his face was so disfigured from trying to cut through four lanes of traffic, it had to be almost rebuilt. Reprints of Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces had Mark Hamill’s face on the cover, and the Star Wars trilogy is often used as an example of a Hero’s Journey in high school and college papers. That's quite serious for a movie that was only meant to entertain.

Kate Winslet—10/5/1975—is an English actress who came onto the radar with her role in The Titanic, by James Cameron. She plays seventeen year old Rose DeWitt, a young and wealthy socialite, opposite Leonardo De Caprio, in his role as poor, Irish lad, Jack Dawson, who won the ticket to get on the ill fated cruise in a card game. The scene where Jack blushingly paints Rose in the nude, or the one where they hide and make love in a car in the ship’s hold so passionately that the whole car is filled with steam, made women fall in love with this couple. Men just seem to want to see the ship sink.

But Kate Winslet has gone on to make many other popular movies, including Sense and Sensibility, Heavenly Creatures, Hamlet, Hideous Kinky, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Finding Neverland, to name a few. She has often chosen to work in small, indie films rather than more popular ones, but she is the youngest person ever to have been nominated for 6 Academy Awards.

Kate had a four year relationship with Stephen Tredre, but he died of bone cancer during the opening of the Titanic in London, so she missed the premier to attend his funeral. She married Jim Treapleton in 1997, and they had a daughter together, but divorced in 2001. Winslet then married Sam Mendes in 2003, who was scheduled to fly on American Airlines flight number 77, a plane hijacked by the terrorists in 2001, and crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. They have one son together, so then the couple never flew together, too afraid of leaving their children parentless. Sadly, they divorced in 2003.

Kate Winslet is an outspoken advocate for women to eat and have healthy bodies, and not starve themselves as the Hollywood mold tries to force them to do. Her weight is always under speculation, but it does not seem to bother her, she has a strong mind of her own. She narrated a documentary called A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism, and founded a nonprofit organization, The Golden Hat Foundation, to help fight barriers for people with autism. Winslet also narrated a video for PETA, and has encouraged restaurants to take foie gras off of their menus. She won a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in The Reader in 2008, and two Golden Globes in the same year, for Best Actress in Revolutionary Road, and Best Supporting Actress in The Reader. Kate Winslet has won awards too numerous to mention.

She involves herself in many children’s causes, and narrated Listen to the Storyteller, winning a Best Spoken Word Award Album for Children. Kate was also honored by being appointed to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Birthday honors for her services to drama. This writer is confident Kate Winslet will be using her Libran charms to play many more fabulous roles in the future.

Tom Petty is a Libran born on October 20, 1950, and hails from Gainesville, FL. He became popular as the lead singer in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the 1970’s. At the time, disco and rap music were becoming very popular, and those who loved what is now called “classic rock” did not have an alternative to listen to. So the work of this band also became known as “alternative rock”, along with some other bands of that time period.

Tom became interested in music when he met Elvis Presley in the summer of 1961, when his Uncle was an actor working on a photo shoot and Tom accompanied him to work one day. Then when he saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, he knew for sure that he wanted to be in a band, it looked like so much fun to him. Even now when Petty is seen performing, he does always look like he’s having the time of his life!

There were several different lineups of The Heartbreakers over the years, as in most bands, but the first noticed hit was “Breakdown.” Their second album made the Top 40, and the third, Damn the Torpedoes, went Platinum, featuring, Here Comes My Girl, Don’t Do Me Like That, and Refugee. During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the group contributed their talent to several charity events, such as the No Nukes Concert at Madison Square Garden, and Musicians United for Safe Energy.

By the late 1980’s, Tom Petty became more of a solo act, and was invited to join the reclusive Bob Dylan on his True Confessions Tour. The two singers/songwriters hit it off, and later Petty founded the Traveling Wilburys, along with friends Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. Their first song, Handle With Care, was just supposed to be a Side B for one of George Harrison’s singles, but they all decided it was too good, and went on to record two albums, and a third after Roy Orbison passed on, because a lot of the numbers on it had been bootlegged anyway. They seemed to be having a really good time when they made those albums, very relaxed and just singing for themselves.

There were several different lineups of The Heartbreakers over the years, as in most bands, but the first noticed hit was “Breakdown.” Their second album made the Top 40, and the third, Damn the Torpedoes, went Platinum, featuring, Here Comes My Girl, Don’t Do Me Like That, and Refugee. During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the group contributed their talent to several charity events, such as the No Nukes Concert at Madison Square Garden, and Musicians United for Safe Energy.

By the late 1980’s, Tom Petty became more of a solo act, and was invited to join the reclusive Bob Dylan on his True Confessions Tour. The two singers/songwriters hit it off, and later Petty founded the Traveling Wilburys, along with friends Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. Their first song, Handle With Care, was just supposed to be a Side B for one of George Harrison’s singles, but they all decided it was too good, and went on to record two albums, and a third after Roy Orbison passed on, because a lot of the numbers on it had been bootlegged anyway. They seemed to be having a really good time when they made those albums, very relaxed and just singing for themselves.

Sadly, Tom Petty passed away on October 2, 2017. He will be very missed.