‘Sleepless’ writer dies at 71
NEW YORK – Among the injustices about the death of Nora Ephron is that she isn’t around to tell us about it.
“She was so, so alive,” says her friend Carrie Fisher. “It makes no sense to me that she isn’t alive anymore.”
Ephron, the essayist, author and filmmaker who challenged and thrived in the male-dominated worlds of movies and journalism and was loved, respected and feared for her devastating and diverting wit, died of leukemia Tuesday night in Manhattan. She was 71.
Born into a family of screenwriters, a top journalist in her 20s and 30s, then a best-selling author and successful director, Ephron was among the most quotable and influential writers of her generation. She wrote and directed such favorites as “Julie & Julia” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” and her books included the novel “Heartburn,” a knockout roman a clef about her marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein.
