Nora Ephron | Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/","20200917235320","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1600386800"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic&display=swap" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">  <title>Nora Ephron | Academy of Achievement</title> <meta name="description" content="Nora Ephron achieved international success as a director and writer of feature films, a field that had been effectively closed to women for over half a century. Her earlier work as a journalist and essayist had already won her a reputation for sharp-eyed social observation and sharp-tongued humor. It also introduced a distinctive approach to her favorite subjects: New York City, food, and the baffling ways of men and women in love. She was pregnant with her second child when her husband left her, and she found herself at home with two babies to take care of while trying to break into screenwriting. In 1983, her script for the film Silkwood was nominated for an Oscar, and her novel Heartburn, a comic fictionalization of the end of her marriage, became a bestseller. Ephron's original screenplay, When Harry Met Sally, solidified her reputation as a screenwriter, but she wanted something more. She soon made her name as a director with Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, runaway successes that established her as Hollywood's premier creator of modern romantic comedies. Her 2009 film Julie and Julia recounts the life of the author and television personality Julia Child, who introduced Americans to French cooking in the 1960s. Ephron's 2006 book of essays, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, topped the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for over nine months. Although her subject was the aging process, her approach to the human condition was unchanged. "When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you," she said. "But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh.""/> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"/> <meta name="googlebot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <meta name="bingbot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Nora Ephron | Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Nora Ephron achieved international success as a director and writer of feature films, a field that had been effectively closed to women for over half a century. Her earlier work as a journalist and essayist had already won her a reputation for sharp-eyed social observation and sharp-tongued humor. It also introduced a distinctive approach to her favorite subjects: New York City, food, and the baffling ways of men and women in love.</p> <p class="inputText">She was pregnant with her second child when her husband left her, and she found herself at home with two babies to take care of while trying to break into screenwriting. In 1983, her script for the film <i>Silkwood</i> was nominated for an Oscar, and her novel <i>Heartburn</i>, a comic fictionalization of the end of her marriage, became a bestseller. Ephron's original screenplay, <i>When Harry Met Sally</i>, solidified her reputation as a screenwriter, but she wanted something more. She soon made her name as a director with <i>Sleepless in Seattle</i> and <i>You've Got Mail</i>, runaway successes that established her as Hollywood's premier creator of modern romantic comedies. Her 2009 film <i>Julie and Julia</i> recounts the life of the author and television personality Julia Child, who introduced Americans to French cooking in the 1960s.</p> <p class="inputText">Ephron's 2006 book of essays, <i>I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman</i>, topped the <i>New York Times</i> hardcover bestseller list for over nine months. Although her subject was the aging process, her approach to the human condition was unchanged. "When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you," she said. "But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh."</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2018-06-11T13:16:49+00:00"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ephron-Feature-Image-1.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@achievers1961"/> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@achievers1961"/> <script type="application/ld+json" class="yoast-schema-graph">{"@context":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#organization","name":"Academy of Achievement","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/","sameAs":["https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-academy-of-achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChe_87uh1H-NIMf3ndTjPFw","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://twitter.com/achievers1961"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/12.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Academy of Achievement"},"image":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#website","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/","name":"Academy of Achievement","description":"A museum of living history","publisher":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/search/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ephron-Feature-Image-1.jpg","width":2800,"height":1120,"caption":"Writer and Director Nora Ephron -- (Photo by: Scott McDermott/USA/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/#webpage","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/","name":"Nora Ephron | Academy of Achievement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-05-06T17:08:24+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-11T13:16:49+00:00","description":"Nora Ephron achieved international success as a director and writer of feature films, a field that had been effectively closed to women for over half a century. 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Screenwriter and Director</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2309 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-film-director careers-screenwriter"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/WhatItTakes_ephron_256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">For years, I just wrote scripts that didn’t get made. I got paid for them, but I thought, ‘Am I ever going to get a movie made?’</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Creator of the Modern Romantic Comedy</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 19, 1941 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 26, 2012 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_9620" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9620" style="width: 1358px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9620 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9620 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and director. (© Corbis)" width="1358" height="1938" data-sizes="(max-width: 1358px) 100vw, 1358px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562.jpg 1358w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562-266x380.jpg 266w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562-533x760.jpg 533w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9620" class="wp-caption-text">Nora Ephron: journalist, novelist, and screenwriter.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron was born in New York City and lived, for the first four years of her life, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a neighborhood that figures prominently in her writing. She was the first of four daughters of Henry and Phoebe Ephron, writers who moved to Los Angeles when Nora was three to work in the film industry. Although the Ephrons enjoyed success in Hollywood, young Nora did not feel at home in the Southern California of the 1950s and longed to return to New York, which she always regarded as her real home.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After graduating from Wellesley College in 1962 with a degree in journalism, she served briefly as a White House intern during the administration of John F. Kennedy. Returning to New York at last, she found work in the mailroom at <i>Newsweek</i> magazine and was soon promoted to researcher. When New York City’s newspapers suspended publication during a strike by the International Typographical Union, Nora Ephron and some of her friends, including the young <span class="s2">Calvin Trillin</span>, put out their own satirical newspaper. Ephron’s parodies of <i>New York Post</i> columnists caught the eye of the <i>Post</i>‘s publisher, Dorothy Schiff. When the strike was over, Schiff hired Ephron as a reporter. The 1960s were a lively time for journalism in New York, and Dorothy Schiff’s <i>Post</i>, a liberal-leaning afternoon tabloid, offered Ephron a free hand to explore her favorite city from top to bottom.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9626" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9626" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9626 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9626 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron's script for <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> earned her a reputation as Hollywood's leading scribe for romantic comedies, and led to her later success as a director. (Columbia Pictures)" width="2000" height="1333" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg 2000w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9626" class="wp-caption-text">Ephron’s <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> script earned her a reputation as a leading Hollywood writer of romantic comedies.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">While working at the <i>Post</i>, Nora Ephron also began writing occasional essays for publications such as <i>New York</i>, <i>Esquire</i> and <i>The New York Times Sunday Magazine</i>. Her work as a reporter won acclaim as part of the “New Journalism” movement of the 1960s, in which the author’s personal voice became part of the story. Her humorous 1972 essay, “A Few Words About Breasts,” made her name as an essayist. As a regular columnist for <i>Esquire</i>, she became one of America’s best-known humorists. Her essays, often focusing on sex, food, and New York City, were collected in a series of bestselling volumes, <i>Wallflower at the Orgy</i>, <i>Crazy Salad</i> and <i>Scribble Scribble</i>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">An early marriage to humorist Dan Greenburg ended in divorce, and Ephron married investigative reporter Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame. After the birth of their first child, Ephron curtailed her activities as a journalist and devoted more of her time to screenwriting, scripting occasional television episodes and selling a number of screenplays that were never produced. Midway through Ephron’s second pregnancy, her marriage to Carl Bernstein ended, and she found herself alone with two small boys to raise. Her screenplay for the film <i>Silkwood</i> (1983), based on the life of an anti-nuclear activist who met a violent end, was made into a successful film by famed director Mike Nichols, starring actress Meryl Streep.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9623" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9623" style="width: 2616px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9623 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9623 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron at work on the set of her film, Lucky Numbers (2000). (Paramount Pictures/Photofest)" width="2616" height="1724" data-sizes="(max-width: 2616px) 100vw, 2616px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron.jpg 2616w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9623" class="wp-caption-text">2000: Screenwriter and director Nora Ephron at work on the set of her film <em>Lucky Numbers</em>. (Paramount Pictures)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The same year, Ephron published a comic novel, <i>Heartburn</i>, clearly based on the marriage to Bernstein and its painful dissolution. A film adaptation, starring Streep and Jack Nicholson, soon appeared, directed by Mike Nichols from a script by Ephron. With two high-profile screenplays to her credit, Ephron became one of the most sought-after writers in the business. Her personal life took a happy turn in 1987, when she married author and journalist Nicholas Pileggi, best known for his true-crime stories, including two that formed the basis for films by director <span class="s2">Martin Scorsese</span>, <i>GoodFellas</i> and <i>Casino</i>.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9619" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9619" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9619 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9619 size-full lazyload" alt="Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron and her husband, Nicholas Pileggi, at the premiere of her film, <i>Lucky Numbers</i> (2000). (© PACHA/CORBIS)" width="2000" height="1424" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662.jpg 2000w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662-380x271.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662-760x541.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9619" class="wp-caption-text">2000: Nora Ephron and her husband, Nicholas Pileggi, at the premiere of her film, <i>Lucky Numbers</i>. (Pacha/Corbis)</figcaption></figure> <p>Nora Ephron enjoyed her greatest success yet with <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> (1989), a romantic comedy directed by Rob Reiner, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. The film struck an instant chord with audiences and became an international hit. Ephron had seen her parents’ writing careers falter in their 50s, as they both fell prey to alcohol and the fickle fashions of Hollywood. Ephron contemplated a transition to directing, in part to protect her own writing career in an industry still largely inhospitable to films by or about women. Unfortunately, her directing debut, <i>This Is My Life</i>, about the struggles of a single mother working as a stand-up comic, was a box office disappointment. Ephron knew her future as a director would stand or fall with her next assignment.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><i>Sleepless in Seattle</i> (1993) was co-written by Nora Ephron and her younger sister, Delia. Director Nora cast <em>When </em><i>Harry Met Sally</i> star Meg Ryan, teaming her with Tom Hanks. The resulting film was an enormous success, and Ephron was now established as Hollywood’s foremost creator of romantic comedies. A follow-up film, <i>Mixed Nuts</i>, was a commercial disappointment, but <i>Michael</i>, starring John Travolta as an angel, enjoyed solid success at the box office. In <i>You’ve Got Mail</i> (1998), Ephron re-united <i>Sleepless</i> stars Hanks and Ryan in a contemporary variation on the classic comedy <i>The Shop Around the Corner</i>. With <i>You’ve Got Mail</i>, the team of Ephron, Ryan and Hanks scored another huge success; Ephron’s film also served as a love letter to her beloved Upper West Side.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9621" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9621" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9621 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9621 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron (right) directs actors Michael Caine and Nicole Kidman in <em>Bewitched</em> (2005). (Courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Photofest)" width="1200" height="800" data-sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron.jpg 1200w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9621" class="wp-caption-text">2005: Nora Ephron directs actors Michael Caine and Nicole Kidman in <em>Bewitched. (</em>Columbia Pictures/Photofest)</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In the following years, Nora Ephron pursued a wide variety of projects. She made an unexpected foray into writing for the stage with her 2002 play <i>Imaginary Friends</i>, based on the turbulent rivalry of authors Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. She took another unusual tack with an offbeat big-screen adaptation of the 1960s television series <i>Bewitched</i>, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. Her 2006 collection of essays, <i>I Feel Bad Abut My Neck: And Other Reflections on Being a Woman</i>, immediately shot to number one on the <i>New York Times</i> bestseller list.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In her film <i>Julie and Julia</i>, she returned to a favorite subject — food — by telling the parallel stories of famed food writer Julia Child and a contemporary Manhattan woman who sets out to cook her way through every recipe in Childs’s classic <i>Mastering the Art of French Cooking</i>. The 2009 film starred Ephron’s friend and previous collaborator Meryl Streep as Julia Child. In addition to her books, plays and movies, Ephron wrote a regular blog for the online news site <em><span class="s2">The Huffington Post</span>.</em> Her 2010 collection of essays, <i>I Remember Nothing</i>, took a humorous look at the aging process and other topics.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9645" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9645" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9645 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9645 size-full lazyload" alt="Awards Council member and filmmaker George Lucas presents Nora Ephron with the Golden Plate Award at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9645" class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member and famed filmmaker George Lucas presenting award-winning director and screenwriter Nora Ephron with the Golden Plate Award at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron was one of a handful of successful women film directors working in Hollywood, and one whose films consistently featured women in strong, decisive roles. She lived to see all three of her younger sisters —Delia, Amy and Hallie —build successful writing careers. Nora Ephron died in Manhattan, from complications of leukemia, at the age of 71.</span></p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2007 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.film-director">Film Director</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.screenwriter">Screenwriter</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 19, 1941 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 26, 2012 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">Nora Ephron achieved international success as a director and writer of feature films, a field that had been effectively closed to women for over half a century. Her earlier work as a journalist and essayist had already won her a reputation for sharp-eyed social observation and sharp-tongued humor. It also introduced a distinctive approach to her favorite subjects: New York City, food, and the baffling ways of men and women in love.</p> <p class="inputText">She was pregnant with her second child when her husband left her, and she found herself at home with two babies to take care of while trying to break into screenwriting. In 1983, her script for the film <i>Silkwood</i> was nominated for an Oscar, and her novel <i>Heartburn</i>, a comic fictionalization of the end of her marriage, became a bestseller. Ephron’s original screenplay, <i>When Harry Met Sally</i>, solidified her reputation as a screenwriter, but she wanted something more. She soon made her name as a director with <i>Sleepless in Seattle</i> and <i>You’ve Got Mail</i>, runaway successes that established her as Hollywood’s premier creator of modern romantic comedies. Her 2009 film <i>Julie and Julia</i> recounts the life of the author and television personality Julia Child, who introduced Americans to French cooking in the 1960s.</p> <p class="inputText">Ephron’s 2006 book of essays, <i>I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman</i>, topped the <i>New York Times</i> hardcover bestseller list for over nine months. Although her subject was the aging process, her approach to the human condition was unchanged. “When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you,” she said. “But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s your laugh.”</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HhXgLux6iw?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=3526&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_57_23_09.Still024-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_57_23_09.Still024-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Creator of the Modern Romantic Comedy</h2> <div class="sans-2">Washington, D.C.</div> <div class="sans-2">June 21, 2007</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You’ve written that you learned from your parents’ friends that at the age of 50, screenwriters’ careers sometimes nose-dive. Was that what drew you to directing, the need to extend or protect your career as a screenwriter?</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I think it was two things. It wasn’t just that I wanted to go on writing, but I wanted to write about things that were hard to attach directors to, if you wanted to write about women in any way.</span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/oHb9L_ESIKY?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_57_06_16.Still023-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_57_06_16.Still023-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Ninety percent of the men directing movies have no interest in women in any real way, except as girlfriends or wives. They don’t really want to make movies about them, and they don’t. So the arduous task of getting someone to commit to something that had anything to do with my life was very frustrating. Then, when I did <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> with Rob Reiner, I wrote that script, and I thought, “Well, I don’t really want to direct, but if I did direct, this would be a good movie to start with, because there aren’t a lot of people in it, and there aren’t a lot of people in any of the scenes, and it wouldn’t be that complicated shooting it,” and all of that. But then Rob did it, and he was so brilliant. He did such a brilliant job. He changed the script. He made it so much better than it was, and so I thought, “Well, I guess if I get to work with the Robs of the world, why direct?” And then my next movie I did with someone else who didn’t make the script better. So, at about that time, I thought maybe I should think about directing.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><p class="p1"><span class="s1">If I became a director, I could at least get my own movies made, my own scripts made, and the sense that I would be interested in subjects that men might not be interested in. It’s very hard to get people to direct your movies if you are a screenwriter. First, you have to write the script. That’s almost the easy part.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9626" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9626" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9626 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9626 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron's script for When Harry Met Sally earned her a reputation as Hollywood's leading scribe for romantic comedies, and led to her later success as a director. (Columbia Pictures)" width="2000" height="1333" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg 2000w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9626" class="wp-caption-text">Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally script earned her a reputation as a leading Hollywood writer of romantic comedies.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Speaking of <i>When Harry Met Sally</i>, you’ve used Meg Ryan in several films to great effect. What was it about her as an actress that kept you coming back to her for those roles?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, Meg can do everything. Meg is both funny and smart, and you rarely get that in one person. She’s a brilliantly gifted actress. She really is.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That script also got an Oscar nomination and is famous for a scene involving a fake orgasm. Did that come off as you wrote it?</b></span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/zb-z_uSRhsM?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=77&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_54_27_07.Still022-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_54_27_07.Still022-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Nora Ephron: I’d been working on this script with Rob Reiner, and Rob had told me all this stuff about guys, right? And how horrible they are and how unwilling they are to commit in any way, even to the bed of the person they’ve just had sex with for the rest of the night. So one day, we were sitting around, and Rob said, “You know, we’ve told you all this stuff about guys.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Now you tell us anything about women that we don’t know,” and it was like, “I dare you, I dare you. You will never be able to tell me anything about women I don’t know, but try.” So I said, “Well, women fake orgasms,” and he said, “Not with me.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So I said, “Yes, with you,” and he said, “No, no, no.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I said, “Yes, yes, yes.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Well, he went completely crazy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He really did.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I mean, he did a total Meathead moment and went thundering out to the bullpen at Castle Rock Pictures, where all the women were, and said, “Get in here,” and they call came in.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He said, “Is it true that women fake orgasms?” And this group of six completely terrified assistants all looked at him and went like this.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was just an amazing moment.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item " width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/_NVMsvO4NQU?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=173&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>A memorable scene from <em>When Harry Met Sally</em> starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So we took that fact and put that into a scene. It was a very simple scene where Sally tells Harry that, and Harry says, “Not with me,” and she says, “Yes, with you,” and he says, “I don’t believe it,” and she says, “You better believe it.” It was very simple.</span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/-cmZExTAB4E?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=85&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_53_31_02.Still020-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_53_31_02.Still020-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">We had a read-through, and Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan read the script, and at the end of the read-through, Meg said, “You know, I think this scene would be much funnier if it took place in a restaurant,” and Rob said, “That’s a great idea.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Let’s do it in a restaurant,” and then Meg said, “And then I think at the end of the scene, she should have an orgasm,” and Rob said, “Well, that’s a really good idea,” and Billy Crystal said, “And one of the customers can say: I’ll have what she’s having,” and Rob said, “And I know just the actor to play that part: my mother.” Now, you know, I had started out in the movie business thinking, “Oh please don’t let them change my lines. Please don’t let them do anything to me.” And you know, you hear an idea like that, and you think, “I am so lucky to be working with these people.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thank God people believe in collaboration.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Of course, I get all the credit for that line which I had — well, I’d like to think I had something to do with it, because if I hadn’t broken the news about faking orgasms, there might be millions of men still walking around the earth not knowing it, and they do know it because of that movie.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It was a brilliant performance by Meg Ryan as well.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: It was, wasn’t it? She’s great.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>You’ve said that despite the great success of <i>When Harry Met Sally</i>, you had a tough time getting financing for your first directorial effort.</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/0wPp8R3Njro?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=78&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_53_31_00.Still021-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_53_31_00.Still021-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Nora Ephron: It wasn’t a really commercial movie.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It would have been more commercial had it had a more commercial cast, but I didn’t have a very commercial cast. In fact, I had Bette Midler who wanted to do it, and Jeffrey Katzenberg at Disney would not let her out of her contract to do it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I think the movie would have done better if Bette had been in it. I loved Julie Kavner in it, but I begged Jeffrey Katzenberg to let (Bette Midler) out of her contract, or for him to make it, and he simply had no interest in the subject matter of that movie and told me so.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He had no interest in what it was about, which was balancing a career and work.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was about a woman stand-up comic, who had two children.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s a very funny script, and a good script, and Jeffrey isn’t really interested in women.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>His wife is a housewife.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He just wasn’t there, and it was heartbreaking to me. I went through — it seemed like forever — trying to get it made, and then suddenly one day a guy named Joe Roth at Fox said, “I’ll make this movie with Julie Kavner,” and he did it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It was a wonderful movie.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Thank you.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_9650" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9650" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-9650 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9650 size-full lazyload" alt="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C." width="2280" height="3007" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926-288x380.jpg 288w, /web/20200917235320im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926-576x760.jpg 576w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9650" class="wp-caption-text">Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The next year came <i>Sleepless in Seattle</i>. That was a great success. How did you come to write <i>Sleepless in Seattle</i>?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: <i>Sleepless</i> was a script that had been written by three or four other writers before me, and it never really worked, but it had this amazing ending on the top of the Empire State Building that just worked, no matter what came before it. It’s kind of amazing, because the characters were sort of gloopy and unfunny, and yet you got to the end and you went, “Wow, this is amazing!” And I needed the money.</span></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/2PklbiGA4fI?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_51_41_14.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_51_41_14.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I had done my first movie, <i>This Is My Life</i>, which I had done for scale, which is not very much money, and I was completely out of dough, and my agent said, “Oh gee, here’s a rewrite,” and it’s supposed to happen. It had a director. It had casting attached to it, and not Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and so I read it, and I thought, “Oh, I can fix this. I can make this better.” So I did a rewrite on it, and basically made it into a comedy, or made it into — not a comedy, but a movie that had laughs in it, which it didn’t at all. And suddenly, it was a “go” picture, and the director who had been attached to it — who had no interest in making a comedy, I guess — bowed out of it. He was gone, and the actors were gone, because they weren’t really funny, and it was suddenly a script that a lot of people wanted to be in.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/_tGPBqkS1G0?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=54&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_51_37_03.Still017-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_51_37_03.Still017-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">It wasn’t like I thought, “I have to direct this.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In fact, I thought, “Well, this isn’t really good enough yet,” and they kept saying, “Don’t you want to direct this?” and I kept saying, “But it’s not ready to be directed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’ve got to do another rewrite on it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I only worked on it three weeks. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“No, no.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s fine.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Do anything you want to.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I said, “Well, I’ve got to bring Delia, my sister, in on it, because I need a lot of help if I’m going to direct it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Bring Delia in. That’s great!” Delia brought a huge number of hilarious things to it, and suddenly — I have never had anything like it happen.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was instant.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was like, I think I gave them the script — the first pass in March — and we were scouting in Seattle in early June, and we were shooting in August.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was unbelievable.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Looking back, it seems like an effortless vehicle. What was it like to direct it?</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235320if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/HsMCEl6UmJw?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_31_49_06.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ephron-Nora-2007-HDCAM-2of2-Orig.00_31_49_06.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Nora Ephron: I have no idea what it was like to direct it, because all of my experiences as a director are filtered through food, and the food was great in Seattle.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That’s all I can tell you, and the sun was shining all the time, because it was summertime in Seattle. We had to — actually, of course — have some rain in the movie, and we had to bring in water trucks, and everyone got really angry at us because there was a drought, and we were wasting water, making rain in the movie. It was this movie where you just thought, “I wonder if this is going to work? Who knows?”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>You know, I had no idea.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Tom wasn’t quite Tom Hanks at that moment. Tom and Meg had already done a movie together, and it had been a big flop, <i>Joe Versus the Volcano</i>. So basically, I thought, “Well this is great.” We had this fantastic apartment, my husband and I, a block from the Seattle Pike Place Market, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World as far as I’m concerned. Unbelievable crab and cherries and peaches. It was great. It was an unbelievable experience, and the actors were fantastic. Rosie O’Donnell, who has been a friend of mine ever since, was just starting out. She’d just been in <i>A League of Their Own</i>, and is one of the funniest people that ever lived. Every time we would shoot, she is so shockingly brilliant, she would say — you would say your name, and she would sing a song about you, rhyming everything, using your name, using whatever she knew about you. She was a rapper in some way that was so brilliant. I couldn’t believe it. She’s great at everything she does. It was an amazing experience. David Hyde Pierce, we had such an extraordinary cast, looking back on it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You talked about balancing career and family while making <i>This Is My Life</i>. It doesn’t seem, from what you’ve said, that it was a source of great agony to you as a mother. It sounds like you were always able to do that, but for some of those years, you were a single mom.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, you’re always a single mother if you’re divorced from the father of your children, even if you’ve married a great guy, which I did. </span><span class="s1">Being a writer is easier than having a full-time job. You can make your own hours. So by the time my kids got home from school, I was probably pretty well burned out as a writer for the day. So it wasn’t like, “I’m busy. I’m working. Get out of here.” I think that when I went off to direct <i>This Is My Life</i>, when the kids were ten and eleven — or eleven and twelve, I can’t remember exactly which — I think they were slightly shocked, because they hadn’t really had the experience of having a working mother. I was home. I was always available. I <i>did</i> bake cookies. I did do all that stuff at the school. I went on class trips. So even though they knew I worked, and they knew that I was a writer, it hadn’t cost them in any way. When I went off to do that first movie, I think they were really surprised that their mother actually worked. That was the first true knowledge they had of what that meant.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Movie hours can be pretty exhausting.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Looking back on it, I thought, “Well, they’re old enough to handle this,” and by the way, they did handle it. But the truth is, it was harder for them than I thought it was going to be. But I didn’t care. I’m sorry, but I didn’t. It was time for me to do this, and I thought, “We have a good support system in place. They have a stepfather. They have a father. They have a great nanny, and they’ll come visit me every other weekend. We’ll all get through this.” But it interested me later, when they complained about it, that I hadn’t quite been sensitive to it, because it was time for me to do this. I had to do it, and it was only ten weeks.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That’s refreshing to hear. You’re not agonizing like a lot of women do about these questions.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I was very lucky because I was a writer, but if you’re a lawyer or a doctor or you work in a factory, you have hours, you don’t have freedom. They don’t care that there’s a school meeting in a lot of places. So I was very lucky. Had I had a full-time job, I might not have had anything near the ability to be the kind of mother I was for the first ten or eleven years of their lives.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We’ve read that while you were a student at Wellesley, all you could think about was being a writer in New York. Can you tell us about your desire to be a writer in New York? Why New York?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I was born in New York, and I was really happy for the first four years of my life, and then my parents moved to California, and as far as I was concerned, my life was over, ruined. I had an absolutely clear sense of it, even at the age of four or five, and one of my earliest memories is that I was now in California. The sun was shining. I was at nursery school surrounded by happy, laughing children, and all I could think was, “What am I doing here? How can I ever get out of this place and get back to where I truly belong?” I know I absolutely believed that, and I don’t think that’s unusual with kids, not necessarily with the same — obviously — the same story I had, but I think a lot of people have a very strong sense early on that they are in the wrong place and that they belong somewhere else, and I knew I belonged in New York.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I wanted to be a journalist. It didn’t really cross my mind that someday I would actually think of myself as a writer, but I wanted to be a journalist, and there was a lot of journalism in New York. That’s where you wanted to end up if you were a journalist. So it was a perfect marriage of those two things.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When did your other siblings come along? Did you already have your next youngest sister when you moved to L.A.?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Delia is three years younger than me, and Hallie is five years younger than Delia, and Amy is three years younger than Hallie.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So there were two of you by the time you moved to Southern California?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes, yes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Did that have anything to do with your negative feelings about California?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Not at all.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was your impression of the writing life of your parents, who were screenwriters?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, they went off every morning in their respective cars to the same office, which was about four blocks away from our house. In fact, my mother drove a Studebaker for about five years, and when she traded it in, it had something like 9,000 miles on it. She literally drove to the studio and drove back every day. We knew that they went there and they wrote movies, and that they wrote together, and they were basically contract writers in the old studio system, and they wrote a movie and it got made. It was different when I became a screenwriter.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For years, I just wrote scripts that didn’t get made. I got paid for them, but I thought, “Am I ever going to get a movie made?” And I looked at my parents who had 14 or 15 credits, and thought, “This is never, ever going to happen for me.” It was a completely different time. But you know, I didn’t have a sense of them as much as writers as I did as screenwriters. They were very much in the movie business. Most of their friends were other screenwriters. They were very active in the Screenwriters Guild, and every so often we got to go to the set and meet somebody who was in one of their movies. That was very exciting, meeting Fred Astaire and people like that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For a long time I thought it was kind of great that they did this. My mother was almost the only working woman that anyone knew in Beverly Hills, until at one point one of my friends moved to Beverly Hills and her mother worked, but her mother had to work because she was divorced.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My mother worked out of choice, and she was really the only woman in that community who did, and went through quite a lot in the way of sort of competitiveness, from the other women, who didn’t work, and I think were extremely irritated that my mother managed to work and have four children, none of whom was flunking out of school, quite the contrary, and all of that. But I think she was very defensive about being a working woman in that era, and every so often, there would be something at school, and I would say, “There is this thing at school,” and she would say, “Well, you will just have to tell them that your mother can’t come because she has to work.” And it was years later that I realized that she could have come. She wasn’t punching a time clock at 20th Century Fox. When I had children, I had no problem getting to the stuff at school. I just don’t think that she wanted to go to school and be perceived as that kind of mother, but I can’t ask her about it now.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>I think it was one of your sisters who described the family dinner table as like the Algonquin Round Table. Was there a lot of verbal jousting?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: It was not, I’m sure, at all like the Algonquin Round Table, even though one of my sisters did describe it that way, but it was true that a</span><span class="s1">t night, one of the things you did is people asked you — your parents said — “What did you do today?” and you told them. And unlike my experience with my children, where if I asked them what they had done that day and they said, “Nothing,” I was kind of — that was the end of that. That was not the end of that in our house. In our house, it was very much you were expected to kind of be entertaining and tell a little story about what had happened to you. They really taught us, I think, how to be writers, because we learned at the dinner table to take whatever mundane thing had happened to us and tried to make it a little bit entertaining.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Was there any dynamic there that was particularly telling, being the oldest of four? One of our interviewees wrote a book saying that birth order is very significant.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Birth order is so significant that you don’t have to read a book about it. If you’re the first, you absolutely know what it means to be the first. You get all the good stuff, it seems to me. Being the first is the best. First of all, I had the normal things you have as a firstborn child. Also, when my parents got genuinely crazy later in life, I was the one who had had most of the good years with them. So I was very lucky in that way.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Genuinely crazy?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Crazy drunk. Very difficult. All that fabulous, sunny, perfect life dissolved in alcohol.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Did that have to do with their careers waning as well?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: No. Because alcoholics are alcoholics. In those days, you liked to think that people became alcoholics because X, Y, or Z. They had a broken heart or something. Now we know that alcoholism is just a disease, and they had it, and it didn’t really come into full bloom until they were well into their forties.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Going back to yourself as a child, did you like to read? Were there books that you really remember loving as a kid?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes. I was an early reader. </span><span class="s1">My first memory of my mother, which of course came up very easily when I was in therapy, was of her teaching me to read. Your first memory of each of your parents is a kind of key to many things about your life, and mine is: I am sitting next to my mother, and she is teaching me to read and I can read, and she is so happy. So imagine what that is to a child. I mean, all you want to do is read because you know it will make your mother happy, and of course, reading is so great. So I was an avid reader, just constantly reading, reading, reading, reading. Television really didn’t come into our lives until I was about nine or ten, by which time I had already read hundreds and hundreds of books. I was already hooked on the Oz books and the <i>Betsy-Tacy</i> books. You name it, I had read it. <i>Mary Poppins</i> and all of <i>Nancy Drew</i>. Junky books, great books, I read everything. Beverly Hills Public Library was a very short bike ride away, and I would go over there and take three books out and go back two days later and take three more books out.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What about teachers? Were there teachers who were pretty important to you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes. I had a couple of great, great teachers. The teacher who changed my life was my journalism teacher, whose name was Charles Simms. I always tell this story. I love it. I had already decided that I was going to be a journalist. I didn’t know why exactly, except that I had seen a lot of Superman comics. Lois Lane and all of those major literary characters like that, but Mr. Simms got up the first day of class, and he went to the blackboard, and he wrote “Who, what, where, why, when, and how,” which are the six things that have to be in the lead of any newspaper story. Then he did what most journalism teachers do, which is that he dictated a set of facts to us, and then we were all meant to write the lead that was supposed to have “who, what, where, why, when, and how” in it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He dictated a set of facts that went something like, “The principal of Beverly Hills High School announced today that the faculty of the high school will travel to Sacramento, Thursday, for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Speaking there will be Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, and two other people.” So we all sat down at our typewriters, and we all kind of inverted that and wrote, “Margaret Mead and X and Y will address the faculty in Sacramento, Thursday, at a colloquium on new teaching methods, the principal announced today.” Something like that. We were very proud of ourselves, and we gave it to Mr. Simms, and he just riffled through them and tore them into tiny bits and threw them in the trash, and he said, “The lead to this story is: There will be no school Thursday!” and it was this great epiphany moment for me. It was this, “Oh my God, it is about the point! It is about figuring out what the point is.” And I just fell in love with journalism at that moment.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I just fell in love with the idea that underneath, if you sifted through enough facts, you could get to the point, and you had to get to the point. You could not miss the point. That would be bad. So he really kind of gave that little shift of mind a major push. I just fell in love with solving the puzzle, figuring out what it was, what was the story, what was the truth of the story.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was your parents’ reaction when you told them you wanted to be a journalist?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I don’t have any memory of telling my parents I wanted to be a journalist, but they would have been completely happy about it. They absolutely wanted us to be writers. I can’t imagine, if I ever said, “I’ve decided to be a journalist,” they wouldn’t have said great.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why did they want you to be writers?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I think they thought we <i>were</i> writers. I think that there are many kids who are not writers. We were writers. I think they wanted us to be writers so that we wouldn’t make a mistake and be things that we weren’t. Had I said I want to be a lawyer, that probably would have been okay, too. I could easily have been a lawyer, but they would have known it wouldn’t have been as much fun to be a lawyer.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So they felt writing was fun?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, writing is a great life if you can make it work. What’s more fun than that, you know?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How did you decide to go to Wellesley?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I think the decision to go to Wellesley was just a very simple one. First of all, m</span><span class="s1">y mother had laid down an edict in the house, which was that we were not allowed to go to any school that had sororities. I don’t know why. That’s a perfectly good edict, by the way, but I don’t know if she laid it down because she hated sororities, which I’m sure she did, or whether it was a very simple way of directing us to a very small number of colleges, all of which were very good, the seven women’s colleges in the East at that time and Stanford. So I applied to all of them. And I went to Wellesley because I had gone to a slide show, and it had a really beautiful campus. It was one of those things. Nobody got on a plane and visited colleges in that period. Wellesley was one of the best places you could go to, and most of the very bright women in the United States went to Wellesley or Radcliffe or Stanford. So I chose Wellesley.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You used some devastating language when you made a graduation speech at Wellesley some years later. As bright as everyone was, it was still understood that a woman’s degree was just a backup, in case you couldn’t find a husband.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: It was called “something to fall back on.” </span><span class="s1">I went to college in 1958. I was the Class of ’62. It was an unbelievably bland time in America. It was the end of the ’50s, the happy homemaker. Betty Friedan was about to publish <i>The Feminine Mystique</i>, and the women’s movement was about to begin, as well as quite a few other social movements in the ’60s. Everything was about to really break free, but we didn’t know that in 1958. It was a very, very, very — you were supposed to go to college, you were supposed to get your B.A., and then if you were interested in medicine, you were supposed to marry a doctor.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You had an internship at the White House. Can you talk a little bit about that experience?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I had this fantastic internship, I thought. I interned for Pierre Salinger, who was the Press Secretary for John F. Kennedy, for President Kennedy, and I was beside myself getting this internship. Six weeks in the White House! It never crossed my mind that I would have almost no duties whatsoever, much less even a desk. I had really nothing to do, but to sort of hang around and eavesdrop and look through files hoping to find secret documents, which I did find several of, by the way.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Do tell.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, nothing that would seem that exciting, but you had to be there. At the time, I thought, “Oh my God, look what I have just stumbled onto!” Anyway, I spent most of the summer hanging out, watching the press corps come in to the Press Secretary, going to all the press conferences. A lot of those jobs, if they give you any work to do, which they really didn’t — I mean, there was a woman in Salinger’s office whose entire job was autographing Pierre Salinger’s pictures. That was not full time, although she had a desk at least, and was paid to be there five days a week, but they didn’t have anything worse than that to give out, and I didn’t have much to do. But in retrospect…</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I realized many years later that I was probably the only woman who had ever worked in the White House that Kennedy didn’t make a pass at. It kind of sort of made me sad at a certain point, as one person after another revealed herself to have had an affair with the President, and I thought, “Well, why not me?” But then, of course, I realized why not me, which is that I had had a really bad permanent wave that summer, and I didn’t look really great, but it was sad.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I did meet the President. He did say hello to me the first day we were introduced, and about four weeks later, I would have to say the high point of my entire summer came. </span><span class="s1">I was standing out at the Rose Garden on a Friday afternoon, along with everyone else in the White House, watching the President leave. It may not seem like much to do, but everyone went out to do it, and they were all standing there, and the helicopter had landed to take the President to — I guess to Hyannis Port or to the plane to Hyannis Port, however it worked. So this helicopter is making this terrible noise, and I’m standing there with this whole group of people, and suddenly — and we think he is going to come out of the White House itself, but instead, he came right out of the Oval Office door and right past me and turned around, and the helicopter is going around, and he goes, “How are you coming along?” And I said, “What?” And that was it. That was my entire relationship with John F. Kennedy, which someday I am sure the Kennedy Library will ask me about, and I’ll tell them, because I don’t know how anyone could write a book about that Presidency without knowing that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Shortly after that, you did get your first job in journalism.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I was a mail girl at <i>Newsweek</i>. You know, “We don’t have women writers, but if you want to be a mail girl, or a clipper…” I was promoted to clipper after I was a mail girl, and then I was promoted to researcher. The men wrote these stories and then the women checked them. That’s how it worked in those days. Then I got a job at the <i>New York Post</i>. There was a newspaper strike in New York, and some friends of mine put out a parody of a couple of the New York newspapers. Calvin Trillin worked on it, too. I worked on the <i>New York Post</i> parody, and he worked on the <i>Daily News</i>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I wrote a parody of one of the columnists, and the people at the <i>New York Post</i> were very angry about it. They thought that the <i>Post</i> should sue, not that there was anything to sue. There was no entity to sue, but nonetheless, they were all ranting and raving about how someone should be sued for this. This is before people really understood what parodies were. And the publisher of the <i>Post</i>, Dorothy Schiff, said, “Don’t be ridiculous. If they can parody the <i>Post</i>, they can write for it. Hire them,” and so I got a job as a reporter there.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was that job like?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: It was a great job. It was fantastic. I covered everything there was to cover. I covered politics and murders and trials and movie stars and President’s daughters’ weddings. It was a very small staff. There was a lot of news. You were allowed to write very much with a sense of humor and a certain amount of derision even. We were not <i>The New York Times</i>, and we knew that, and it was a great way to become a writer because you could really find your voice.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How long were you there?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Five years.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>And during this time, did you have your first marriage?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: It was the tail end of it. Yeah.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You seem to be attracted to marrying men who write.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I do, I know. How pathetic is that? But they’re interesting. You know, Superman is the key to everything. Lois Lane didn’t know that Clark Kent was Superman, but I did. Writers are interesting people.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Did you find sexism at the <i>Post</i> in those days?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: No. The <i>New York Post</i>, with its tiny staff, had way more women writing there than <i>The New York Times</i> with its huge staff. They simply had no sexism at all there, none. When I became a freelance writer afterwards, there was not a lot of sexism <i>per se</i>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There were magazines that didn’t have a lot of women writing for them, but if you wanted to write for them and you were any good at all, you could. But <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>, the first assignment I got from them in 1968 or ‘9 was a fashion assignment, and I had never written about fashion in my life. I knew nothing about fashion. I cared less, but I thought, “Well, I’ll do this. I’ll write this, and then they’ll see I can write for them, and then I won’t have to write about fashion anymore,” and I never did.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>At what point did you first think about writing for film and television?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I didn’t think of going into film until I was well into my thirties. I had been a — I had been a columnist at <i>Esquire</i> for several years and was fairly well known, and someone came to me with the idea of writing a screenplay, and I thought, “Well, why not?” Everybody was trying to write screenplays at that point. Everyone was trying to get into the movie business, and I thought, “Well, this will be fun and interesting.” You don’t consciously do these things, and yet, I look back on my life, and I realize that about every ten years or so, I sort of moved laterally, or every eight years. I was a newspaper reporter. Then I became a magazine writer, and then a columnist, which was a different version of it, and then I started writing screenplays. So it wasn’t that I said, “Oh, it’s time for me to do something different.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">At a certain point, you get to a place where you kind of know what you’re doing, and you kind of know that you’re going to be repeating yourself if you go on doing it much longer. So when the chance to do something else comes along, you go, “Well this might be fun. This might be interesting.” And it <i>was</i> interesting, ’cause I really didn’t know what I was doing, writing screenplays. I wrote quite a few before one got made. I didn’t have a screenplay made until <i>Silkwood</i> was made, and that was — I was 40 or so, about 40 or 41, and until I worked with Mike Nichols on that screenplay — it wasn’t that Alice Arlen and I hadn’t written a good script, but then I got to go to school by working with Mike, because he was so brilliant at working with you on script, and the realization that I had known so little and was learning so much working with him was amazing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How did you come together with Alice Arlen on <i>Silkwood</i>?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Alice was a friend of mine. She was at Columbia Film School, and she was a good writer. I had read a screenplay that she had done. I was, by then, divorced and a mother of two children, and I had been offered <i>Silkwood</i>, and I couldn’t figure out how I was going to go to Oklahoma and do all this stuff and have these two children. It was very complicated, and I thought it might be fun to do it with somebody and not have quite the burden. As it turned out, Alice and I went to Oklahoma together, but what was great was that we worked together and had a huge amount of fun doing it. She is very brilliant at screenplays and at structure, so that’s how the idea came up. I just thought, I’ll ask Alice to do this with me, and she said yes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How did Mike Nichols sharpen what you had done together? Was it in the area of dialogue?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Mike teaches you many things. One of the things that Mike teaches you is he’s constantly asking, “What’s this story about? What’s this scene about? What’s this section of the movie about?” Just forcing you to understand that if you have a bunch of scenes and they are all about exactly the same thing, at least two of them are superfluous. At the same time, if you are in a section of the movie that is about whatever it is about, that section of the movie had better be about that thing or else it too… et cetera.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So he taught us a lot about that, and then I got to watch him cast. </span><span class="s1">He let us be in the room when the actors came to meet Mike Nichols, the greatest actor’s director, and there I learned all this stuff you would never know, and the number of screenwriters who don’t know this, because directors aren’t generous enough to let them in the room, who don’t understand that an actor makes your scene work. Actors aren’t the enemy, which a lot of screenwriters think. Actors are what make it happen, and you would watch three or four actors read a scene, and you would think, “Oh, this is the worst scene I have ever written! This is so embarrassing, I’m going to crawl under the couch!” And then the right actor would come in and nail it, and you’d go, “Oh my God, I am a genius! I am fantastic!” Or else the right actor would nail it, and you would think, “Oh, this scene is a little long. I got a little bored right there, better fix that.” So all of those things were things that I learned from Mike.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>He has an affection for actors, too, doesn’t he?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, anyone smart who directs has an affection for actors, because they’re amazing. They’re completely amazing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You once wrote that your mother wanted you and your sisters to understand that the tragedies of your life have the potential to become comic stories one day.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: What my mother always said was a little bit more neutral, which was, “Everything is copy.” If you came to her with a tragedy — and God knows children have a lot of tragedies — she really wasn’t interested in it at all.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">She wasn’t one of those mothers who went, “Oh honey, tell me what happened to you at school. What did the bad girls do to you?” No. She just would say, “Oh well, everything is copy.” And all she meant was that someday you will make this into a funny story, or a story, and when you do, I will be happy to listen to it, but not until then. I think she basically taught us a very fundamental rule of humor — probably of Jewish humor if you want to put a very fine definition on it, although she would not think so — which is that if you slip on a banana peel, people laugh <i>at</i> you, but if you <i>tell</i> people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s <i>your</i> joke, and you’re the hero of the joke. It basically is the greatest lesson I think you can ever give anyone. I always worry I didn’t teach it well enough to my own kids, because I was such a good mother. I always said, “Oh honey, tell me what happened to you.” I’m kind of mystified that she didn’t, ’cause it really is weird and sort of against human nature practically, but that was just who she was.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It’s very empowering to get the message that someday you can laugh at this and make copy out of it.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I’m always horrified at — especially the women I know — who go through things like divorces, and five years later, they’re still going, “Oh, look what he did. Look what the bad boy did to me.” Right? Get over it! Turn it into something. Stop being a victim. That is one of the most important lessons of “everything is copy,” is you must not be the victim of what happens to you. You must own it. You must get above it. It’s just an unbelievable lesson in terms of how to live your life, especially if you’re a woman. Espcecially. It was always one of my most fundamental irritations with the women’s movement, in my era of it, was how quickly they embraced victims and victimization and still do.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">You know, a huge number of things, like these women who get goosed in the office and then file a lawsuit instead of just telling whoever did it to jump off a cliff. “Oh, you can’t do that because they’ll fire you!” So what? So get another job. But they won’t really. They don’t fire you. That’s the interesting thing, especially in this day and age. I’m very old-fashioned in that way. I just don’t get that rush to embrace the victim role instead of just saying something clever or witty, or even lame.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It’s not only empowering, but it also sends the message that you won’t be defeated by this temporary setback or this temporary tragedy. It won’t defeat you because you’re going to own it.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes. It does reinforce that thing that writers have, which is that “third eye.” Whatever horrible thing is happening to you, there is always this other thing thinking, “Hmm, better remember this. This might be a story someday.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Could you tell us about <i>Heartburn</i>, where you did, in fact, rather publicly turn the downfall of a marriage into a somewhat comic novel and movie?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: My second marriage ended in this very melodramatic way. Melodramatic if you weren’t involved with it, and dramatic if you were. I was pregnant, and my husband had fallen in love with this extremely tall woman who was married to the British ambassador, and it was very painful and horrible at the time. But then a few months later, I found myself at a typewriter working on a screenplay, and instead I wrote the first eight pages of a novel, and it was a novel that I knew if I could — you know, when I was going through the nightmare of the end of the marriage, I absolutely knew that there was — if I could ever find the voice to write it in, that someday it would be a story, someday it would be copy. But at the time, I was way too distraught to ever feel that. But you know, time heals, especially if you had a mother like mine. So I started writing a novel that became <i>Heartburn</i>, and that was the thinly disguised version of the end of that marriage.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That must have been rather cathartic.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, no. Actually, people think that. </span><span class="s1">People think that when you write something it’s cathartic, and I had written a lot of personal articles at <i>Esquire</i>, and people always say, “Oh God, it must have been so great when you finally wrote about having small breasts.” No. You get through that, and then you write it. It is not the writing that is the catharsis. The catharsis has happened, and it in some way has moved you from the boo-hoo aspect of things to the “Oh, and wait until I tell you this part of the story! Wait until you hear this, if you want to hear what…” where you really don’t want people to feel sorry for you. I have such a strong sense of that, that I did not ever want people to think, “Oh, poor Nora!” You know?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was the reaction to <i>Heartburn</i>?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, it sold a lot of books. I think there were many men who were made very nervous by it. </span><span class="s1">I think that men were allowed to write about their marriages falling apart, but you weren’t quite supposed to if you were a woman. You were just supposed to curl up into a ball and move to Connecticut. But you know, it didn’t really matter because, as I said, I knew what the book was. It’s a funny book, and I was very happy that it sold a lot of copies.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It became an amazing movie, with Mike Nichols involved again.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes, my second movie with Mike. And my second movie with Meryl Streep.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Tell us about the casting of <i>Heartburn</i>. Were you involved in that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: No. I got to see the auditions, but the main casting was done by Mike. Meryl wanted to do a comedy. She wanted to work with Mike again. Here it was, and it was great for all of us.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was the reaction of your ex-husband to the book and movie?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: He was very irritated by the book and the movie, by both things, and I think secretly thrilled, because he could now be the victim. He could now walk around saying, “Look what she did to me! Look what she did to our children! She wrote this book!” Our children couldn’t read at that point, but nonetheless, he thrilled to be the “good” parent.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In your commencement speech at Wellesley, you gave some statistics that were pretty depressing about how few female directors there still were in Hollywood, even in the mid to late ’90s. Has that improved much now?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes, it’s improved. It is still not great, but it’s improved, and it will continue to improve. Someday there will be more of them, but there still won’t be enough.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I think there are a lot of reasons. One is the movie business, which is very much driven by the young male audience that goes to the movies. This is why you see a lot of women in television and not in movies. Television is a business that is very much driven by women viewers, so it’s wide open for women. That’s part of it. That’s just a little Marxist explanation, but there are many, many, many more women in television now than there were in the movie business, and there are many more women running studios and working at studios. So all of that is evening out. The director thing, I don’t think is going to even out, or the screenwriter thing is going to even out, until women drive the marketplace as much as men do. I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen. In about 20 years, if not sooner, I don’t even think people will go to the movies the way they do now. So that will be different.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>If you were talking to a young female writer who is watching or reading your interview, what advice would you have for somebody who is looking at journalism or writing as a career?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: What advice would I have? Do it. </span><span class="s1">My advice to everyone is: “Become a journalist.” I think everyone should be a journalist, and that is totally narcissistic on my part, but I think it’s the most amazing way to learn about how people live. I mean, to be able to dip into other people’s lives at the unbelievably ludicrous points you get to when you’re a journalist, either when they’ve just been killed, or they’re just about to win the Oscar, or they’ve just written a really wonderful book, or they just demonstrated against something worth demonstrating against. It’s truly a way of getting out of whatever narrow world we all grow up in. We all grow up in the most narrow worlds, and then we go to another narrow world, which is college, where no matter how different everyone is, they’re all the same. Suddenly, they’re all wearing the same thing suddenly, and reading the same books suddenly, and thinking about the same philosophical question suddenly. You know, if you have a chance to be a newspaper reporter for three or four years — before you do whatever you want to do — do it, because you will know so much.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When we were doing <i>Silkwood</i>, there’s a scene that is a union meeting at this plutonium factory that Karen Silkwood worked at. Obviously, I’ve never worked at a plutonium factory, but I had worked at the <i>New York Post</i>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We were shooting this scene in Texas, where we were shooting it, and I arrived at the set, and Mike Nichols — who is a brilliant man, but doesn’t know everything — had put all the people in the scene — the union people and the management people — at a round table, because he wanted to shoot at a round table, and I said, “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t do that. It’s a union negotiation. It has got to be a rectangular table.” Now, that’s a very simple thing, but we would have looked foolish, and I was the only person on a set of 60 people who had ever been in a union negotiation, because I had been on the Newspaper Guild negotiating committee at the <i>New York Post</i>. That’s the kind of stuff you have to know. If you want to go into the movie business, what are you going to write a movie about when you’re 22 years old? I’ll tell you what. You’re going to write your coming-of-age movie, and then you’re going to write your summer camp movie, and then you’re going to be out of things, because nothing else will have happened to you. So, I think it’s very good to become a journalist.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Lately, your book about your neck has gotten tremendous attention and has sold a lot of copies. Here again, you seem to be taking something almost taboo — a woman’s aging — and turning it upside-down and making it very, very funny and cathartic, at least for your readers. Was that a difficult book to contemplate?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: No, no. I had been reading all these books about getting older. When you go through menopause, there are all these books out there called things like “The Joy of Menopause,” and you think, “What is this book about? What relevance does this book have to anything I am familiar with?” None whatsoever. And then ten years later, as I went into my sixties, there were all these books about how fabulous it was to be older and how you are going to have the greatest sex of your life in your sixties. I don’t know why people write things like that, because they’re just lies, but then I thought, there might be a circumstance that you could have the greatest sex of your life in your sixties — if you had never had sex until then, maybe. This stuff was all out there, and I kept thinking, “Why are people writing this? Why are people saying this? Don’t they have necks? Don’t they look in the mirror?”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">One day, someone — an editor at <i>Vogue</i> — called me and said they were doing an issue on age and was there anything that I wanted to write about, and I said, “Yeah. I want to write about my neck.” It wasn’t anything hard, and I just wrote this funny thing called “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” which everybody read, a huge number of people. Most people, you don’t expect, when you have a piece in <i>Vogue</i>, to have a huge — you know, people don’t buy <i>Vogue</i> necessarily for the articles, but this was an issue all my friends read, and a lot of people said, “Oh, that was really funny,” and I thought, “Oh, I see. There’s a book here. There’s a book about getting older,” and I started making a list of things that I thought could be written about that no one had written about, like maintenance, which is a full-time career for those of us who are getting on in years, just sort of keeping your finger in the dike, so that you don’t look like a bag lady. So I made a list of things and then wrote most of the book and sold it. And then there’s all sorts of things that aren’t about aging, like my summer in the White House when President Kennedy didn’t sleep with me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You must have had quite a response from women, thanking you for telling it like it is.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Yes. Yes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Well, you look marvelous.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well thank you, darling.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Sometimes we ask our honorees to talk about the American Dream. Do you have a concept of that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I’ve always had a very clear sense — since I was a kid, reading books about people who didn’t live in the United States — about how lucky I was to live here. There’s no place like it. I remember, after 9/11, there was a lot of foolish talk about, “Where we would go if we had to leave this place?” which I just thought was so idiotic. I couldn’t believe it, because where could you go? Where could you possibly go? Nowhere. There is no place like this, no place that offers what this country does.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In terms of freedom?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: In terms of everything. It’s no big deal that I’m a writer; my parents were writers. But it’s a big deal that <i>they</i> were writers. It’s a big deal that they went to college. They were first-generation Americans, first-generation college graduates, and they became screenwriters. I was a child of privilege, but m</span><span class="s1">y husband, Nick Pileggi, is first generation, first generation B.A., and he became a writer. He and I are one generation different, not in our ages, but in our parents’ experience. That wouldn’t have happened to him in another place, and it almost didn’t happen here, by the way, because he was in junior high school and was assigned — got his schedule in junior high school — and he was in all vocational classes. And he went to the guidance person and said, “Why am I not in English classes? Why don’t I have any classes like my friends have?” and they said, “Oh, you’re Italian American. You’re not going to need this kind of thing. You’re not going to go to college.” That was New York City! But he fooled them and switched out of it, but the point is you still hear stories like that, stories from people like Mario Cuomo, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who couldn’t get a job after she graduated from law school. There’s still a lot of that stuff, and yet, compared to anyplace else, this is by far the best place you could be.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Obstacles can be significant in growth and progress. What have your occasional failures taught you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: I wish I had learned more from failure than just mortification. I don’t think you learn much from success, and I don’t think you learn much from failure, unfortunately. It’s one of the sad things. You certainly learn that it’s more fun to have a hit than a flop. That’s one thing you truly learn.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What keeps you going after a flop?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Well, I’m a writer, and I’m very lucky because I don’t always have to write the same kind of thing. I know how to write in more than one way, which is one of the luckiest things about my life, but I think failure is very hard, because you don’t really know. You really don’t know. People see things that don’t work, and they think, “Didn’t they know that wasn’t going to work?” Well they didn’t! They really didn’t. They really thought it was going to be fabulous and great, and everybody working on it thought it was, and then it comes out, and it doesn’t work. It really doesn’t work, and you go, “Hmm, too bad that didn’t work.” But you don’t learn. I wish one learned more. It certainly doesn’t keep you from failing again, I’ll tell you that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What are the differences between directing your own writing, and writing for projects that you don’t direct?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: The good thing about directing your own writing is you have no one to blame but yourself, and I’m a big one for that. I would much rather blame myself than have the alibi of saying, “That wasn’t my idea.” That’s the greatest thing. Also, when you write something, you really do hear how you want it said. Sometimes it isn’t said that way. It’s said much better, because you have a really great actor saying it, and they come at it in a completely different way. And sometimes you have a really great actor who missed the joke, and you have a chance to say to them, “No, no, no. I think the word here you’re missing is this,” or you can at least be there on behalf of the script as the director. But you have a very clear idea when you write something of what you want it to look like.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I’m writing something now that I know I’m not going to direct, and there’s a great freedom in that. There’s a great freedom in not always having to know everything about what’s going to happen in the scene, and knowing that if it gets made, it will be someone else’s problem what the room looks like, what the improv is at the beginning or the end of the scene, all of that stuff.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What are you writing now? Can you talk about what it is?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Oh no, because it probably won’t happen.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>With your track record, maybe it will. Thank you for the great interview.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Nora Ephron: Thank you. It was great.</span></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Nora Ephron Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>17 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Nichols-Corbis-0000314929-015.jpg" data-image-caption="Film and stage director Mike Nichols, who directed Nora Ephron's screenplays "Silkwood" and "Heartburn," photographed in 1995. (© CORBIS/SYGMA)" data-image-copyright="eph0-019-ephron-nichols" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Nichols-Corbis-0000314929-015-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Nichols-Corbis-0000314929-015-760x499.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron at work on the set of her film "Lucky Numbers" (2000). (Paramount Pictures/Photofest)" data-image-copyright="eph0-009-ephron" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-1-ephron-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron (right) directs actors Michael Caine and Nicole Kidman in "Bewitched" (2005). (Columbia Pictures/Photofest)" data-image-copyright="eph0-007-ephron" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-bewitched-ephron-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70263157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-3-ephron.jpg" data-image-caption="December 1998, New York City: "You've Got Mail" film premiere with Meg Ryan, Nora Ephron and Tom Hanks (Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Rex Features)" data-image-copyright="ephron-1998-youve-got-mail-premier" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-3-ephron-380x267.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-3-ephron-760x534.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4258911819887" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and director. (© Corbis)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562-266x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691562-533x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron and her husband, Nicholas Pileggi, at the premiere of her film "Lucky Numbers" (2000). (© PACHA/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662-380x271.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Ephron-Corbis-ZUA691662-760x541.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron's script for "When Harry Met Sally" earned her a reputation as Hollywood's leading scribe for romantic comedies, and led to her later success as a director. (Columbia Pictures)" data-image-copyright="" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-whenharrymetsally-photofest-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625.jpg" data-image-caption="George Lucas presents Nora Ephron with the Golden Plate Award at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-lucas-2007-academy_1625-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-academy_0925.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-academy_0925" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-academy_0925-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-academy_0925-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0929.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0929" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0929-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0929-760x519.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3669064748201" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0927.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0927" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0927-278x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0927-556x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3194444444444" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926-288x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0926-576x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0924.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0924" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0924-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0924-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67236842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-032-ephron-2007-academy_0933.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-032-ephron-2007-academy_0933" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-032-ephron-2007-academy_0933-380x256.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-032-ephron-2007-academy_0933-760x511.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0932.jpg" data-image-caption="Nora Ephron addresses the student delegates at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0932" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0932-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-2007-academy_0932-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-GettyImages-176653066.jpg" data-image-caption="Writer and Director Nora Ephron (Photo by Scott McDermott/USA/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Character Approved - Season 1" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-GettyImages-176653066-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/eph0-ephron-GettyImages-176653066-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3793103448276" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/eph0-001ephron-nora.jpg" data-image-caption="Writer and director Nora Ephron (Courtesy of Nora Ephron)" data-image-copyright="eph0-001ephron-nora" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/eph0-001ephron-nora-276x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/eph0-001ephron-nora-551x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span 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Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-michael-caine/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Michael Caine</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jennifer-a-doudna-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/peter-gabriel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peter Gabriel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol W. Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-b-maccready-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul B. MacCready, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony D. 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Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235320/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. 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