Director/Writer Nora Ephron 1941-2012

[Zoneboy]

Nora Ephron, director, producer and writer of movies who was Oscar nominated for her original scripts to the films "Silkwood," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle," has died. She was 71 and had been ill with leukemia, according to reports.

Ephron directed eight films, the most recent of which was 2009's well-regarded Streep-Amy Adams starrer "Julie and Julia," which represented a significant rebound from the critical and box office failure "Bewitched" in 2005.

Ephron picked up her first Oscar nomination in 1984 for the script she wrote with Alice Arlen to "Silkwood," also starring Streep. She was then nominated in 1990 for the romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally," a huge box office hit that starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. She shared an Oscar nom in 1994 for "Sleepless in Seattle," starring Tom Hanks and Ryan, with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch.

At the time of her death Ephron had two film projects in development, a biopic on singer Peggy Lee that she had penned and was to direct, with Reese Witherspoon and Marc Platt to produce at Fox 2000, and "Lost in Austen," which she had adapted and signed on to direct in April for Mammoth Screen and Sony.

Ephron began as a journalist in New York, scoring a scoop in 1966, while working for the Post, that Bob Dylan had secretly married. She raised her profile further with a 1972 essay, "A Few Words About Breasts," and became a widely known humorist through her perch as a columnist at Esquire and a series of bestselling books.

Her second marriage, to journalist Carl Bernstein, led indirectly to her career as a filmmaker. William Goldman penned the screenplay to "All the President's Men," based on the book by Bernstein and Bob Woodward; "Carl and Bob weren't happy with it," she told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper in 2007, "and decided they should redo it, which was not something they should have decided. So Carl and I rewrote William Goldman's script. It was a great way to learn, because Goldman was such a great screenwriter that just typing his stage directions taught me a huge amount." Their work was not used, but it did lead someone to offer her the job of penning a TV movie.

After just two TV credits in the 1970s, for writing an episode of "Adam's Rib" and the telepic "Perfect Gentleman" in 1978, Ephron saw the "Silkwood" script she wrote with Alice Arlen made into a highly regarded film in 1983. The Mike Nichols-directed drama -- based on the true story of a whistleblower in the nuclear power industry who met a suspicious death -- was a far cry from the romantic comedies with which Ephron would later become associated.

The real-life infidelity of husband Bernstein inspired Ephron's 1983 novel "Heartburn," which she adapted into the script for the 1986 Nichols film that starred Streep and Jack Nicholson.

The success of "When Harry Met Sally"in 1989 vastly increased Ephron's standing in Hollywood, and she made her directorial debut on a smaller film she also wrote, "This Is My Life," starring Julie Kavner as a standup comic with two young daughters, in 1992. The next year she directed the much higher-profile film "Sleepless in Seattle," a box office winner. Her next two directing gigs were the black comedy "Mixed Nuts," with Steve Martin (she wrote the script with her sister Delia), and the John Travolta vehicle "Michael" (she and Delia were two of several credited screenwriters). The latter was also a commercial success, and she scored again at the box office in 1998 with "You've Got Mail," with Ephron again working with Meg Ryan.

Nora and Delia adapted the latter's book "Hanging Up" for the 2000 comedy of the same name, directed by Diane Keaton.

The sisters worked together again on the Ephron-directed adaptation of beloved sitcom "Bewitched" in 2005, but the effort, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, was a disaster both critically and commercially.

But her keen observations about aging in the 2006 essay collection "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Reflections on Being a Woman" was a No. 1 bestseller. In 2010, another essay collection, "I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections," was published.

Born in New York City, Ephron was the daughter of screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron. The family moved to Beverly Hills when Nora was 4; she attended Wellesley College, about which she later penned a famously excoriating essay. Henry and Phoebe wrote the play "Take Her, She's Mine," later made into a film starring Jimmy Stewart, and based the 22-year-old daughter, played by Sandra Dee in the film, on Nora.

Ephron made a foray into stagework with the 2002 play "Imaginary Friends," about the caustic rivalry between writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy, but the New York Times said, "In chronicling a feud between two politically engaged, exceptionally feisty women within a literary world of men, Ms. Ephron makes her points dutifully, clearly and repetitively."

More recently, she wrote the play "Lucky Guy," about New York tabloid columnist Mike McAlary, and Tom Hanks was in talks to star in the production on Broadway next year.

Ephron was a frequent presence on television, appearing nine times on "Charlie Rose" and also showing up on "The Colbert Report," "The View" and "Late Night With David Letterman," to name a few.

She received the DGA Honors in 2011, and Ephron was recognized several times by the Writers Guild of America, drawing original-screenplay nominations for "Silkwood," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle," an adapted screenplay nom for "Julie and Julia" as well as the guild's Ian McLellan Hunter Award, presented to a WGA member in honor of his/her body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television, in 2003.

Ephron was married three times, the first time to writer Dan Greenburg, the second to Bernstein. She is survived by her third husband, the writer Nicholas Pileggi; two sons by Bernstein, Jacob and Max, the latter an occasional actor; and sisters Delia and Amy, both screenwriters.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056004?refCatId=13

[catlover79]

I just heard this!!! When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies of all time. She was a tremendous writer and seemed like a fun person to know. God bless her.

[Marvo301]

Nora Ephron

[Schmoopie]

I am absolutely devastated by this news. Nora Ephron has a place in my heart and I feel that it's because of her that I'm living in Seattle now. My husband and I went and saw Sleepless in Seattle on our first date on June 30, 1993 (19 years ago on Saturday!) and three years later we got married (on June 29, 1996) and moved to Seattle. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of moving so far away from Texas (never even fathomed the idea actually), but he mentioned living where Sleepless In Seattle takes place and of course that peaked my interest!

I will always regret not being able to meet Nora Ephron when she was here doing a book signing for her book I Feel Bad About My Neck, but unfortunately I found out the same day she was going to be here and I couldn't exactly leave work early!

My mom told me about Nora's death last night and I didn't believe her (or didn't want to anyway), and when I came home and saw it on the internet, I burst into tears.

She was a wonderful writer and director and she will be very, very missed.