Humorist, Screenwriter Nora Ephron Dies at 71

American writer Nora Ephron, who wrote the screenplays for popular romantic comedies along with a series of memorable humorous essays, has died in New York City at the age of 71.

Her family says Ephron passed away Tuesday after a battle with leukemia.

The daughter of Hollywood screenwriters, Ephron gained fame for such romantic comedies as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” which earned her Academy Award nominations. She also wrote and directed several movies, including “You've Got Mail” and the 2009 comedy-drama “Julie and Julia.”

Ephron was also nominated for an Academy Award for her first screenplay, the 1983 drama Silkwood, which starred Meryl Streep in the true story about a whistleblower in a plutonium plant.

She began her writing career in the early 1960s as a reporter for The New York Post newspaper before turning her attention to humorous essays, many of them focusing on her personal life. Her 1983 novel Heartburn chronicled her failed marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, who helped break the Watergate scandal. Ephron wrote the screenplay for the 1986 film adaptation of the book.

(Photo by David Shankbone: Nora Ephron at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, New York City)