MUMBAI: Oscar-nominated Hollywood screenwriter and director Nora Ephron expired on Tuesday in New York at the age of 71.

Ephron died in Manhattan of complications from the blood disorder myelodysplasia, with which she was diagnosed six years ago. She is survived by her husband and two sons.

Her 15 film credits include films like You've Got Mail, Silkwood and Julie and Julia that was her last film in 2009. Though she was nominated for an Oscar three times, she never won the award.

Ephron was born on 19 May 1941 in New York to a Broadway playwright and a Hollywood screenwriter. She took her mother's advice - "take notes, everything is copy" - very seriously and turned wry personal observations on relationships into hugely successful romantic comedies.

From an early age, Ephron wrote essays for major US magazines from the late 1960s as well as several non-fiction books, including two recent memoirs.

She was married three times, once to Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporter who helped uncover the 'Watergate' scandal. Their marriage ended publicly when he began an affair with the wife of the then-British ambassador, Margaret Jay, who was also the daughter of former British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

Ephron's divorce from Bernstein resulted in the novel Heartburn that she converted into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

Her first marriage to writer Dan Greenburg ended in 1976. Ephron's third marriage to Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the screenplays for the Martin Scorsese films Goodfellas and Casino, lasted for more than 20 years.

Rumours of her death started circulating on Tuesday evening after her friend, celebrity columnist Liz Smith, published an online memorial.