R.I.P. Nora Ephron

Academy Award nominee Nora Ephron has died from a rare form of leukaemia. She was 71 years old.

According to The Washington Post, Ephron had been diagnosed with myelodysplasia six years ago.

Ephron is best known for penning the iconic 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, for which she received an Oscar nomination. She had previously received a nod from the Academy for her Silkwood script. She would receive her third nomination for Sleepless in Seattle in 1994.

Her Sleepless stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan re-teamed in 1998 for another Ephron effort: You’ve Got Mail. She also helmed the failed film adaptation of Bewitched, but had recently seen her fortunes return with Julie & Julia. Ephron released a series of essay collections over the years, and regularly blogged for The Huffington Post.

She briefly worked as an intern at the White House during President John F. Kennedy’s tenure. Years later, she would wed famed journalist Carl Bernstein (her second marriage), and helped him re-write William Goldman’s All the President’s Men. Though hers and Bernstein’s script was not employed by the filmmakers, it paved the way for her screenwriting career.

At the time of her death, Ephron was working on a biopic of Peggy Lee, and the American adaptation of Lost in Austen.

She is survived by her third husband, Goodfellas author Nicholas Pileggi, and two sons from her marriage with Bernstein.

R.I.P.