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Nora Ephron (/ˈɛfrən/ EF-rən;[1] May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). She won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally..., which the Writers Guild of America ranked as the 40th greatest screenplay of all time.[2]

Nora Ephron
Ephron at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	(1941-05-19)May 19, 1941 New York City, U.S.
Died	June 26, 2012(2012-06-26) (aged 71) New York City, U.S.
Education	Wellesley College (BA)
Occupation	Screenwriter producer director journalist playwright author
Years active	1962–2012
Notable work	Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Julie & Julia
Spouses	Dan Greenburg ​ ​ (m. 1967; div. 1976)​ Carl Bernstein ​ ​ (m. 1976; div. 1980)​ Nicholas Pileggi ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	2
Parents	Henry Ephron Phoebe Wolkind
Relatives	Amy Ephron (sister) Delia Ephron (sister) Hallie Ephron (sister)
Awards	BAFTA Award (1990) Crystal Award (1994) Ian McLellan Hunter Award (2003) Golden Apple Award (2009)
Signature

Ephron's first produced play, Imaginary Friends (2002), was honored as one of the ten best plays of the 2002–03 New York theatre season.[3] She also co-authored the Drama Desk Award–winning theatrical production Love, Loss, and What I Wore.[4][5] In 2013, Ephron received a posthumous Tony Award nomination for Best Play for Lucky Guy.[6]

Ephron also directed films, usually from her own screenplays, including Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998), both starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

Early life and education

Ephron was born in New York City on May 19, 1941, to a Jewish family.[7] She was the eldest of four daughters, and grew up in Beverly Hills, California.[8] Her parents, Phoebe (née Wolkind) and Henry Ephron, were both East Coast-born and were noted playwrights and screenwriters. Her parents named her Nora after the protagonist in the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.[9] Nora's younger sisters, Delia and Amy, are also screenwriters. Her sister Hallie Ephron is a journalist, book reviewer, and novelist who writes crime fiction. Ephron's parents based the ingenue character in the play and film version of Take Her, She's Mine on the 22-year-old Nora and her letters from college; Sandra Dee played the character based on Nora in the film version, with James Stewart portraying her father.[10] Both her parents became alcoholics during their declining years.[8]

As a high school student, Ephron dreamed of going to New York City to become another Dorothy Parker, an American poet, writer, satirist, and critic.[11] Ephron has cited her high school journalism teacher, Charles Simms, as the inspiration for her pursuit of a career in journalism.[9] She graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1958, and from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, in 1962 with a degree in political science.[7]

Career

Early work

After graduating from Wellesley College in 1962, Ephron worked briefly as an intern in the White House of President John F. Kennedy.[12] She also applied to be a writer at Newsweek. After she was told they did not hire women writers, she accepted a position as a mail girl.[13]

After eventually quitting Newsweek because she was not allowed to write, Ephron participated in a class action lawsuit against the magazine for sexual discrimination, described in the book The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich, and both the lawsuit and Ephron's role were fictionalized in a 2016 Amazon series by the similar main title Good Girls Revolt.[14]

After a satire in Monocle she wrote lampooning the New York Post caught the editor's eye, Ephron accepted a job at the Post, where she worked as a reporter for five years.[10] In 1966, she broke the news in the Post that Bob Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a private ceremony.[15] Upon becoming a successful writer, she wrote a column on women's issues for Esquire.[8] In this position, Ephron made a name for herself by writing "A Few Words About Breasts," a humorous essay about body image that "established her as the enfant terrible of the New Journalism."[16] While at Esquire, she took on subjects as wide-ranging as Dorothy Schiff, her former boss and owner of the Post; Betty Friedan, whom she chastised for pursuing a feud with Gloria Steinem; and her alma mater Wellesley, which she said had turned out "a generation of docile and unadventurous women."[10] A 1968 send-up of Women's Wear Daily that she wrote for Cosmopolitan resulted in threats of a lawsuit from WWD.[10]

Ephron rewrote a script for All the President's Men in the mid-1970s, along with her then husband Carl Bernstein. While the script was not used, it was seen by someone who offered Ephron her first screenwriting job, for a television movie,[10] which began her screenwriting career.[17]

1980s

In 1983, Ephron coscripted the film Silkwood with Alice Arlen. The film, directed by Mike Nichols, stars Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, a whistleblower at the Kerr McGee Cimarron nuclear facility who dies under suspicious circumstances.[18] Ephron and Arlen were nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1984 for Silkwood.[19]

Ephron's novel Heartburn was published in 1983.[9] The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of her marriage with Carl Bernstein.[9] The film adaptation was released in 1986, directed by Mike Nichols starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Ephron adapted her own novel into the screenplay for the film.[9] In the film, Ephron's fictionalized portrayal of herself, played by Streep, is a pregnant food writer when she learns about her husband's affair.

Ephron wrote the script for the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... in 1986. The film, released in 1989, was directed by Rob Reiner, starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. The film depicts the decade-long relationship between Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) as they navigate their own romantic relationships. Ephron has claimed that she wrote this screenplay with Reiner in mind as the character of Harry, and herself as the character of Sally.[9] The film has become iconic in the romantic comedy genre, most notably for the scene in which Sally pretends to have an orgasm in the middle of Katz's Deli during lunch. Ephron said she wrote the part of Sally simulating an orgasm into the script per Meg Ryan's suggestions. Additionally, the comment "I'll have what she's having" said by a deli patron (played by Rob Reiner's real-life mother Estelle Reiner) watching the scene unfold nearby, was an idea from Billy Crystal.[20] Ephron's script was nominated for the 1990 Oscar in Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.[20]

1990s

Ephron's directorial debut was the 1992 film This Is My Life. Ephron and her sister Delia Ephron wrote the script based on Meg Wolitzer's novel This is Your Life.[9] The film is about a woman who decides to pursue a career in stand-up comedy after inheriting a substantial sum of money from a relative.[9] In a conversation released by Criterion Channel between Lena Dunham, and Ephron, she stated "That movie I made completely for Woody Allen." She later stated in the conversation that he saw it and liked it.[21]

In 1993, Ephron directed and wrote the script for the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. The film stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, a recently widowed father whose son calls into a Chicago-based radio talk show in an attempt to find his father a new partner. After hearing this call, Baltimore resident Annie Reed, played by Meg Ryan, becomes infatuated with Sam, and sets up a rendezvous for the two to meet in New York City.

In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[22]

In 1998, Ephron released the film You've Got Mail, which she wrote the script for, with her sister Delia Ephron, and directed. The story is a loose adaptation of the Ernst Lubitsch film from 1940 The Shop Around the Corner.[9] You've Got Mail stars Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly, an owner of a small, independent children's bookstore in New York City. Her quiet life is then threatened by Fox Books, a Barnes & Noble-esque book selling chain, which opens near her shop. Fox Books is run by Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks. Joe and Kathleen navigate a tumultuous business rivalry, while unknowingly forming an intimate connection with each other via email.

2000s

In 2007, Ephron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member George Lucas.[23][24]

In 2009, Ephron directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Julie & Julia.[9] The film is based on Julie Powell's blog and memoir of the same title. The film is about Julia Child, the famous American chef played by Meryl Streep, and Julie Powell, a New Yorker attempting to cook her way through Child's cookbook, played by Amy Adams. As Powell blogs her experience, the film flashes back to the story of Child's first stages of her career as she trains in a French culinary school. The film was a commercial success.[9]

Ephron's 2002 play Imaginary Friends explores the rivalry between writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. She co-authored the play Love, Loss, and What I Wore (based on the book by Ilene Beckerman) with her sister Delia, and it has played to sold-out audiences in Canada, New York City and Los Angeles.[25][26][27]

Personal life

Ephron was married three times. Her first marriage, to writer Dan Greenburg, ended in divorce after nine years.[8] In 1976, she married journalist Carl Bernstein. In 1979, Ephron had a toddler son, Jacob, and was pregnant with her second son Max when she discovered Bernstein's affair with their mutual friend,[28] married British journalist Margaret Jay, daughter of former British prime minister James Callaghan. Ephron was inspired by this to write the 1983 novel Heartburn,[29] which was then made into a 1986 Mike Nichols film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. In the book, Ephron wrote of a husband named Mark, who was "capable of having sex with a Venetian blind."[8] She also wrote that the character Thelma (based on Margaret Jay) looked like a giraffe with "big feet".[8] Bernstein threatened to sue over the book and film but never did.[10]

Ephron was married for more than 20 years to screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, from 1987 until her death in 2012. The couple lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, and in New York City.

Ephron's friend Richard Cohen said of her, "She was very Jewish, culturally and emotionally. She identified fully as a Jewish woman."[30] However, Ephron was not religious. "You can never have too much butter – that is my belief. If I have a religion, that's it", she quipped in an NPR interview about her 2009 movie Julie & Julia.[31]

Ephron's son, Jacob Bernstein, directed an HBO movie on her life titled Everything Is Copy.[32] As of 2021, he is a reporter for The New York Times.[33]

For many years, Ephron was one of the few people who knew the identity of Deep Throat, the anonymous informer for articles written by her ex-husband Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward uncovering the Watergate scandal.[34] Ephron read Bernstein's notes, which referred to Deep Throat as "MF";[34] Bernstein said it stood for "My Friend," but Ephron correctly guessed it stood for Mark Felt, the former associate director of the FBI.[34]

After Ephron's marriage with Bernstein ended, Ephron revealed Deep Throat's identity to her son Jacob and anyone else who asked. She once said, "I would give speeches to 500 people and someone would say, 'Do you know who Deep Throat is?' And I would say, 'It's Mark Felt.'"[8] Classmates of Jacob Bernstein at the Dalton School and Vassar College recall Jacob's revealing to numerous people that Felt was Deep Throat. This revelation attracted little media attention during the many years that the identity of Deep Throat was a mystery. Ephron said, "No one, apart from my sons, believed me."[35] Ephron was invited by Arianna Huffington to write about the experience in The Huffington Post, for which she was a regular blogger and part-time editor.[34]

Death

In 2006, Ephron was diagnosed with myelodysplasia.[36] She chose not to disclose her diagnosis to friends or colleagues, fearing that the knowledge that she was ill would have impeded her career, and would make it impossible to get projects financed or insured.[37] On June 26, 2012, Ephron died at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan from pneumonia, as a complication of leukemia, at the age of 71.[4]

Ephron's memorial service at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City was attended by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Rob Reiner, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Lorne Michaels, Larry David, Joy Behar, Rosie O'Donnell, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Nicole Kidman, Michael Bloomberg, Charlie Rose, Ron Howard, and Gayle King, among others.[38][39]

At that year's Karlovy Vary Film Festival, actresses Helen Mirren and Susan Sarandon, who were honored with lifetime achievement awards, paid tribute to Ephron during their acceptance speeches.[40]

Lena Dunham's 2014 memoir Not That Kind of Girl is dedicated to Ephron as is Steven Spielberg's film The Post (2017).[41][42]

Legacy

The Nora Ephron Prize is a $25,000 award by the Tribeca Film Festival for a female writer or filmmaker "with a distinctive voice".[43] The first Nora Ephron Prize was awarded in 2013 to Meera Menon for her film Farah Goes Bang.[43]

Filmography

Feature films

As an actress, Nora Ephron appeared in two films, both made by her friend Woody Allen.
She is credited as being a wedding guest in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), as a Dinner Party Guest in Husbands and Wives (1992).

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1983	Silkwood	No	Yes	No	Co-written with Alice Arlen
1986	Heartburn	No	Yes	No	Adapted from her novel of the same name
1989	When Harry Met Sally...	No	Yes	Yes
	Cookie	No	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Alice Arlen
1990	My Blue Heaven	No	Yes	Yes
1991	The Super	No	Yes	No	Uncredited[44]
1992	This Is My Life	Yes	Yes	No	Directorial debut; Co-written with Delia Ephron
1993	Sleepless in Seattle	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch
1994	Mixed Nuts	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with Delia Ephron
1996	Michael	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Delia Ephron
1998	All I Wanna Do	No	No	Yes
	You've Got Mail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Delia Ephron
2000	Hanging Up	No	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Delia Ephron
	Lucky Numbers	Yes	No	Yes
2005	Bewitched	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Delia Ephron
2009	Julie & Julia	Yes	Yes	Yes

Plays

Year	Title	Notes	Theatre
2002	Imaginary Friends	Writer	Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
2008	Love, Loss, and What I Wore	Co-writer	Westside Theatre, Off-Broadway
2013	Lucky Guy	Writer	Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (September 2022)

• Wallflower at the Orgy (1970)
• Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women (1975),[45] ISBN 978-0394497358
• The Boston Photographs (1975)
• Scribble, Scribble: Notes on the Media (1978), ISBN 978-0394501253
• Heartburn (1983, a novel)
• I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (2006)
• I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (2010)
• The Most of Nora Ephron (2013), ISBN 978-0-385-35083-9
• "A sandwich". First Tastes. August 19 & 26, 2002. The New Yorker. 97 (27): 53. September 6, 2021.[lower-alpha 1]

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Notes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1983	Academy Award	Best Original Screenplay	Silkwood	Nominated
1989			When Harry Met Sally...	Nominated
1993			Sleepless in Seattle	Nominated
1989	British Academy Film Award	Best Original Screenplay	When Harry Met Sally...	Won
1993			Sleepless in Seattle	Nominated
1989	Golden Globe Award	Best Screenplay	When Harry Met Sally...	Nominated	[46]
2013	Tony Award	Best Play	Lucky Guy	Nominated	[47]
1983	Writers Guild of America Award	Best Original Screenplay	Silkwood	Nominated
1989		Best Original Screenplay	When Harry Met Sally..	Nominated
1993		Best Original Screenplay	Sleepless in Seattle	Nominated
2003		Ian McLellan Hunter Award		Won
2010		Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie & Julia	Nominated

Other Awards

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1979	Edgar Allan Poe Awards	Best Television Feature or Miniseries	Perfect Gentlemen	Nominated
1994	Women in Film Crystal Award	Crystal Award		Won
1999	Satellite Awards	Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical	You've Got Mail	Nominated
2003	The Best Plays of 2002–03	Ten Best Plays of the New York season	Imaginary Friends	Won
2006	Razzie Awards	Worst Director	Bewitched	Nominated
	Razzie Awards	Worst Screenplay	Bewitched (with Delia Ephron and Adam McKay)	Nominated
2009	Satellite Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie & Julia	Nominated
	Casting Society of America	Golden Apple Award	(with Delia Ephron)	Won

References

External links

• WNED Public Television (November 17, 1975), Interview with Nora Ephron for WNED's series "Woman"
• Nora Ephron at IMDb
• Nora Ephron at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Nora Ephron at the TCM Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Nora Ephron on Charlie Rose
• Nora Ephron collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Nora Ephron collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Works by or about Nora Ephron in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• John Williams (June 27, 2012). "Nora Ephron, the Queen of Quips". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
• Frank Bruni (June 27, 2012). "At the Table, Nora Ephron Knew Best". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
• Julia Moskin (June 27, 2012). "Nora Ephron Never Forgot the Food". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
• Neri Livneh (July 5, 2012), "Neri Livneh salutes her heroine, Nora Ephron"
• "Plays by Nora Ephron". Doollee.
• Nora Ephron Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
• Movie clips: "The Films of Nora Ephron" on YouTube, compilation, 5 min.

На других языках

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[de] Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron (* 19. Mai 1941 in New York City; † 26. Juni 2012 ebenda) war eine US-amerikanische Autorin, Drehbuchautorin sowie Filmregisseurin. Sie ist bekannt als Autorin von romantischen Komödien wie Schlaflos in Seattle, Harry und Sally und e-m@il für Dich.

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- [en] Nora Ephron

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[es] Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron (Nueva York, Estados Unidos, 19 de mayo de 1941 - Nueva York, 26 de junio de 2012) fue una guionista, directora de cine, productora, periodista, novelista, ensayista y dramaturga estadounidense. Era una de las más agudas y brillantes periodistas neoyorquinas cuando publicó Heartburn, considerado un relato de su matrimonio con Carl Bernstein, uno de los periodistas del caso Watergate. Este libro fue llevado al cine con el mismo título y con un guion escrito por la misma autora. Falleció el 26 de junio de 2012, víctima de leucemia.[1]

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[ru] Эфрон, Нора

Нора Эфрон (англ. Nora Ephron; 19 мая 1941, Нью-Йорк — 26 июня 2012, Нью-Йорк) — американский кинорежиссёр, сценарист, кинопродюсер, новеллист, журналистка, писательница и блогер. Она более всего известна своими романтическими комедиями и является трёхкратным номинантом на премию «Оскар» за лучший оригинальный сценарий; за «Силквуд», «Когда Гарри встретил Салли» и «Неспящие в Сиэтле». Она иногда писала со своей сестрой, Делией Эфрон.

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