Who Was Nora Ephron? | Book Riot

You might know who Nora Ephron was due to her motion pictures — most definitely her unofficial “trilogy” of When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, however maybe additionally Bewitched or Julie and Julia. Of course, you might have learn one (or extra) of her books, or be acquainted with her by one of many many fascinating individuals she was related to — her sister Delia, her ex-husband Carl Bernstein, her playwright dad and mom, or any variety of Hollywood people who labored along with her and had been her pals.

But who was Nora Ephron?

Born in New York City on May 19, 1941 to playwrights and screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, Nora and her three sisters grew up in Beverly Hills, California. (Her sister Hallie is a journalist and crime novelist, and sisters Delia and Amy are screenwriters.) Nora was named after the primary character in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. She attended Beverly Hills High School and dreamed of being the subsequent Dorothy Parker, however a instructor impressed her to pursue a profession in journalism and he or she graduated from Wellesley College in 1962 with a level in political science.

After an internship on the White House, she utilized for a job writing for Newsweek, however was knowledgeable that girls had been solely allowed to be researchers, secretaries, and different assist workers. She labored there as a mail lady however give up as a result of she needed to jot down. She later was a plaintiff in a category motion lawsuit towards Newsweek for sexual discrimination. That story is recounted within the guide Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich, which was tailored as an Amazon sequence (however sadly was canceled after one season).

She spent the remainder of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s constructing a outstanding profession. She wrote a satirical piece for Monocle making enjoyable of The New York Post, and was promptly provided a job on the Post, who apparently had a humorousness. She wrote for the Post for 5 years as a reporter, then landed a column at Esquire, the place she famously wrote an essay about physique picture titled “A Few Words About Breasts.” During this time she married and divorced author Dan Greenburg after which married Carl Bernstein, the journalist who had damaged the Watergate scandal (Nora knew that Deep Throat was Mark Felt, and fortunately informed completely anybody who requested, however was by no means believed). She and Bernstein had two sons earlier than his affair with a married journalist ended their marriage; she wrote about it in her novel Heartburn, which he threatened to sue her over (however by no means did). While they had been nonetheless married, they co-wrote a screenplay for All the President’s Men, which, whereas it was not finally used, kickstarted her Hollywood profession.

In the Eighties, Nora co-wrote the film Silkwood, revealed Heartburn and wrote the movie adaptation, and wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally, which was nominated for an Academy Award. She additionally married for the third time in 1987, to screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, to whom she remained married till her loss of life.

In the ’90s Ephron set her sights on directing in addition to writing. She co-wrote (with sister Delia) a screenplay based mostly on Meg Wolitzer’s guide This is Your Life, which she directed as This is My Life (in one of many much less savory particulars of Nora’s life, she was good pals with Woody Allen, and stated she made this film “for him”). She was then employed to rewrite the screenplay for Sleepless in Seattle, and satisfied producers she also needs to direct. She introduced Delia on for that movie, as properly, though she was not credited as a author, solely as a producer. They then wrote — and Nora directed — Mixed Nuts, a comedy starring Steve Martin, and up to date the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner (based mostly on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László) as 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, which Nora once more directed.

Fun truth: Nora lived on the Apthorp house constructing on New York’s higher west aspect for a few years; that constructing performs the position of the Arconia on Only Murders within the Building. (Emily Martin made a wonderful record of books to learn should you love Only Murders.)

In the 2000s Nora wrote the screenplay for Hanging Up, directed Lucky Numbers (the one film she directed however didn’t write), and wrote and directed Bewitched and Julie & Julia. She additionally revealed I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, a guide of autobiographical essays, in 2006, the identical 12 months she was identified with myelodysplasia, a blood most cancers. She selected to not reveal her analysis for concern that it will stymie her profession. Her second guide of essays, I Remember Nothing, was revealed in 2010, and he or she died in 2012. A documentary about her life, titled Everything is Copy and directed by her son Jacob Bernstein, was launched by HBO in 2015 and may be watched on HBO Max and Hulu.

Just about everybody who knew Nora Ephron described her as humorous, heat, and completely good. Her legacy lives on not simply in her books and movies, but in addition within the Tribeca Film Festival’s Nora Ephron Award, a money prize given annually to a feminine author or director with a definite voice. The 2022 prize went to Michelle Garza Cervera for Huesera.