(JTA) — Nora Ephron, a film director, author and essayist who wrote the screenplays for "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle," has died.
Ephron died Tuesday in a New York hospital of leukemia at 71. Only close friends and family knew of the illness, which was diagnosed in 2006.
Her last movie was the 2008 hit "Julie and Julia," starring Meryl Streep. She had started out as a journalist before becoming an author and essayist, and later a screenwriter and director.
Her 2006 book of essays titled "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" became a New York Times best-seller.
Ephron told Daily Forward writer and author Abigail Pogrebin in a 2003 interview for her book "Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish” that she thought of herself “as a Jew, but not Jewish.”
Ephron was married three times and divorced twice, the second time from Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. Her book "Heartburn" was a recounting of their marriage.
A graduate of Wellesley College, she was an intern in the Kennedy White House and then worked as a mail girl at Newsweek.
