- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- nor
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She was an acclaimed essayist (Crazy Salad 1975), novelist (Heartburn 1983), and had written screenplays for several popular films, all featuring strong female characters, such as anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood (Silkwood (1983), co-written with Alice Arlen) and a mobster's feisty independent daughter Cookie Voltecki (Cookie (1989), also co-written with Arlen). Ephron's hard-headed sensibilities helped make Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... (1989) a clear-eyed view of modern romance, and she earned an Oscar nomination for her original screenplay.
Ephron made her directorial debut with the comedy This Is My Life (1992), co-scripted by her sister Delia Ephron, which starred Julie Kavner as a single mother who struggles to establish herself as a stand-up comedienne. Ephron followed up by helming and co-writing Sleepless in Seattle (1993), a romantic comedy in which lovers Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are separated for most of the film. Less about love than about love in the movies, the film drew inspiration from the beloved shipboard romance An Affair to Remember (1957), starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.
Ephron was born in New York City, the daughter of stage and screen writing team Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron, who used her infancy as the subject of their play "Three's a Family" and based their comedy Take Her, She's Mine (1963) on letters their daughter wrote them from college. Their screenplays include There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Carousel (1956) and Desk Set (1957). Formerly married to novelist Dan Greenburg and investigative journalist Carl Bernstein, Ephron was wed to crime journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, at the time of her passing, who wrote such films as GoodFellas (1990). She was of Russian Jewish descent.
- IMDb mini biography by: Serg Pageen <akakii@chat.ru>
- SpousesNicholas Pileggi(March 28, 1987 - June 26, 2012) (her death)Carl Bernstein(April 14, 1976 - 1980) (divorced, 2 children)Dan Greenburg(April 9, 1967 - 1976) (divorced)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesDelia Ephron(Sibling)Hallie Ephron(Sibling)Amy Ephron(Sibling)Jerome Kass(Sibling)Anna Harari(Niece or Nephew)Maia Harari(Niece or Nephew)
- Upon her death, it was revealed that Ephron had been diagnosed only a few years before with myelodysplastic syndrome, a pre-leukemic condition. It was a secret she shared with only a few close famly members and friends.
- New York, NY, USA: Eight months after her death, Ephron's play 'Lucky Guy' opens on Broadway for a limited run starring her longtime friend Tom Hanks.
- In a 2005 interview with Tom Brokaw, she stated that even though then husband Carl Bernstein didn't make her privy to the identity of Watergate informant "Deep Throat," she figured it out from clues (including Bernstein's notes referencing the initials "M. F." -- allegedly for "my friend") and was willing to tell her guess to anyone who asked. Her guess was proved correct when on May 31, 2005, Mark Felt, former assistant director of the FBI during the Richard Nixon administration, was identified as Deep Throat.
- In her most recent book, "I Remember Nothing," she ends the collection of essays with two lists: What I Won't Miss, and What I Will Miss. After the lists come the acknowledgments, which ends with "and of course, my doctors."
- Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
- [on success] Most of us live our lives devoid of cinematic moments.
- One of the few advantages to not being beautiful is that one usually gets better-looking as one gets older; I am, in fact, at this very moment gaining my looks.
- [on feminine hygiene aids] There are a lot of men who manufacture the product who are so reluctant to talk straight about it that you can spend hours with them and not hear one anatomical phrase. They speak of 'the problem'. They speak of 'the area where the problem exists'. Every so often a hard-core word slides into the conversation. Vagina, maybe. Or sometimes from someone particularly scientific or candid, a vulva or two.
- I don't care who you are. When you sit down to write the first page of your screenplay, in your head, you're also writing your Oscar acceptance speech.
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