Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, author and director Nora Ephron has died at the age of 71 following a battle with leukemia. The daughter of a Broadway playwright and a Hollywood screenwriter, Ephron was born in New York in 1941 and began her career as a reporter for the New York Post in the 1960s, as well as contributing humourous essays to publications such as Esquire and The New York Times Magazine. In the mid-1970s, she collaborated with her second husband Carl Bernstein on a re-write of William Goldman’s script for All the President’s Men, which then opened the doors for Ephron to carve a new career as a screenwriter.
After penning the script for the 1978 TV movie Perfect Gentlemen, Ephron earned her first feature credit with 1983’s Silkwood, which earned her the first of three Academy Award nominations. She went on to write a further twelve films, earning further Oscar nominations for 1989’s When Harry Met Sally… and 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, the latter of which she also directed. Other credits include My Blue Heaven (1990), Mixed Nuts (1994), Michael (1996) and Bewitched (2005), along with what proved to be her final feature, 2009’s Julie & Julia.
Originally published June 27, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
