CHICAGO — Carrie Fisher made a lot of people fall in love with her.
One of those was Dan Aykroyd, who fell for her in Chicago after saving her life on the set of the "The Blues Brothers."
Fisher, who died Tuesday at 60, was fresh off her iconic, signature role as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" when she was cast as Joliet Jake Blues' (extremely) vengeful ex-girlfriend in the 1980 hit.
But then she started choking on Brussel sprouts while out with Aykroyd, aka Elwood Blues.
"I almost choked on some kind of vegetable that I shouldn't have been eating: Brussel sprouts!" Fisher told the audience of Dragon Con, a science fiction convention, in 2011. "So he had to give me the Heimlich maneuver. He saved my life, and then he asked me to marry him. And I thought ... wow, what if that happens again? I should probably marry him."
Fisher was riding the fame wave from the huge success of 1977's "Star Wars" when she came to Chicago to film "The Blues Brothers." She was credited in the film simply as "Mystery Woman."
Her character stalked John Belushi's around the city, firing a rocket launcher at him, blowing up a Van Buren Street flophouse with him inside and even machine-gunning him in a dirty stormwater pipe. She never quite hit him and was left in the mud after accepting his apology — only to watch him continue on his "mission from God" without her.
After she nearly choked on the sprout in real life, she said she and Aykroyd bought rings and made plans to marry. But she eventually ended the relationship and returned to her previous beau, Paul Simon.
Fisher, the daughter of movie star Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, returned to the area professionally several times, including a trip to Wizard World Comic Con in Rosemont in August. She also brought her autobiographical one-woman show "Wishful Drinking" to town in 2011.
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