The Talented Nora Ephron Dies at 71

The comedy world and the universe-at-large lost one of its greats on Tuesday night. Nora Ephron died at the age of 71.

Throughout her long life, Nora was an advocate, a trailblazer, director, brilliant comedy writer – you name it, Ephron’s done it, and done it well. Ephron has been at the top of her industry, intimidating bullies with her headstrong determination and sticking up for the underdogs by encouraging young women to break the mold.

Ephron was born in 1941, the child of two famous screenwriters. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1962 and began working as a mail girl at Newsweek. Later that year, the New York Post discovered her parodies of their publication and hired her. After writing for the Post for five years, she developed a voice all her own, bitingly witty and sharply accurate. She moved on to write films.

Her first screenplay, Silkwood, became a movie starring Meryl Streep in 1983. She then had a series of successful movies, Heartburn, also starring Streep, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. Ephron also directed many of these films.

Her talent knew no limits. While she wrote for movies and newspapers, she never stopped telling her own story, writing two essay collections, ‘I Feel Bad About my Neck: And Other Reflections on Being a Woman’ (2006) and ‘I Remember Nothing’ (2010).

To quote Lena Dunham, “Today I think only of Nora. Her work will forever be one of the greatest gifts of my life.”

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