On this day: Nora Ephron is born

One of the most prominent female filmmakers working today, Nora Ephron's life has included a high-profile marriage and divorce, critical and popular acclaim and a close-up view of the Watergate investigation.

Ephron grew up in Beverley Hills with her Jewish parents and three younger sisters. She studied at Wellesley College in Massachusetts – Hillary Clinton enrolled there a few years later - and, graduated in 1962.

After a brief stint as an intern in the Kennedy White House, she began working as a reporter for the New York Post. After finding success as a print writer, she branched out in screenwriting and found Hollywood fame with 80s hits including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. More recent work has included You've Got Mail and Julie and Julia, as well as book on ageing.

Her personal life at times seemed to mirror the films she made. Divorced from her first husband, she married Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein in 1976, discovering while pregnant with their second child of his affair with the British politician Margaret Jay. She later turned the events into a novel, which then became a film. In 1987 she married for the third time.