Biography for
Nora Ephron More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She is an acclaimed essayist (Crazy Salad 1975), novelist (Heartburn 1983), and has 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 mom who struggles to establish herself as a stand-up comic. 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 is 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 is now wed to crime journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote such films as Goodfellas (1990).

Spouse

Trivia

Sister of Delia Ephron and Amy Ephron.

Daughter of Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron.

Sons: Jacob Bernstein and Max Bernstein.

Used to live in famous Manhattan apartment house on the West side called the Apthorp.

Went to the same high school as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Nicolas Cage, Lenny Kravitz, Gina Gershon, Richard Dreyfuss, Jonathan Silverman, and David Schwimmer.

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, W. Mark Felt, former assistant director of the FBI during the Richard Nixon administration, was identified as Deep Throat.

Sister-in-law of Jerome Kass.

Personal Quotes

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.

Where Are They Now

(1983) Release of her book, "Heartburn".

(2006) Release of her book, "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman".

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