NORA EPHRON

Nora Ephron was born on May 19, 1941, in New York, New York. The daughter of playwrights Henry and Phoebe Ephron. She grew up in Los Angeles, feeling much like an outsider. She went east to go to school at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Gifted with a sharp wit, Ephron first made her mark as an essayist. In 1970, her articles were collected and published in 1970's Wallflower at the Orgy and 1975's Crazy Salad. Her first novel, Heartburn (1983), drew inspiration from the end of her second marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein and was later made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Ephron wrote the screenplay for the drama Silkwood (1983). It earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. While that film received much praise, she really hit box office gold with her screenplay for When Harry Met Sally (1989), starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in the title roles. Audiences and critics alike responded enthusiastically to the well-crafted exploration into whether a man and a woman can be just friends and the relationship that develops between the lead characters. She received her second Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for the film. Later, she wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle (1993), You’ve Got Mail (1998) and Julie & Julia (2009). She had 2 sons, Max and Jacob Bernstein.  Ephron died from pneumonia, caused by acute myeloid leukemia, on June 26, 2012, at the age of 71.

"If a business isn't good for women, it doesn't mean you can't get in there and be a woman in that business, and then presumably more women will come into it after you."