'Sleepless...' Nora finally goes to 'sleep'

Nora Ephron, the essayist, author and filmmaker who thrived in the male-dominated worlds of movies and journalism, has died. She was 71.

She died of leukemia on Tuesday night at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, her family said in a statement.

“She was so, so alive,” said her friend Carrie Fisher. “It makes no sense to me that she isn’t alive anymore.”

Born into a family of screenwriters, Ephron was a top journalist in her 20s and 30s, then a best-selling author and successful director. Loved, respected and feared for her devastating and diverting wit, she was among the most quotable and influential writers of her generation.

She wrote and directed such favorites as “Julie & Julia” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” and her books included the novel “Heartburn,” a roman a clef about her marriage to The Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein; and the popular essay collections “I Feel Bad About My Neck” and “I Remember Nothing.”

She was tough on others — Bernstein’s marital transgressions were immortalised in “Heartburn” — and relentless about herself. She wrote openly about her difficult childhood, her failed relationships, her doubts about her physical appearance and the hated intrusion of age.

Even within the smart-talking axis of New York-Washington-Los Angeles, no one bettered Ephron, slender and dark-haired, her bright and pointed smile like a one-liner made flesh. Friends from Mike Nichols and Meryl Streep to Calvin Trillin and Pete Hamill adored her for her wisdom, her loyalty and turns of phrase.

As a screenwriter, Ephron was nominated three times for Academy Awards, for “Silkwood,” “When Harry Met Sally ...” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” and was the rare woman to write, direct and produce Hollywood movies. Fisher and Meg Ryan were among the many actresses who said they loved working with Ephron because she understood them so much better than did her male peers. “I suppose you could say Nora was my ideal,” Fisher said. “A writer, director, wife, mother, chef, wit — there didn’t seem to be anything she couldn’t do.”

She twice directed the team of Ryan and Hanks, in “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” and also worked with John Travolta (in the fantasy “Michael”), Steve Martin (“Mixed Nuts”) and Nicole Kidman (“Bewitched”).