Ellen Simon

About

Birth Place

New York City, New York, USA

Biography

One might assume that being the daughter of one of the most famous playwrights and screenwriters in American history would have its perks, but for Ellen Simon, there was also a great deal of emotional trauma and pain. Her mother, Joan, a former dancer, died of bone cancer when Simon was 16. Searching for a spiritual center, Simon went to India in 1977, and returned with John Leland, a me...

Filmography

One Fine Day (1996)

Screenplay

Moonlight and Valentino (1995)

Play As Source Material

Moonlight and Valentino (1995)

Screenplay

Bewitched (2005)

Screenplay (Uncredited)

Bewitched (2005)

Other

How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

Screenplay (Uncredited)

Family & Companions

John Leland

Husband

Media consultant. Married 1979 in Hindu ceremony; divorced 1982.

Jeff Bishop

Husband

Astrophysicist. Married 1984; killed in jogging accident November 13, 1987.

Michael Florimbi

Husband

Film technician; poet. Married in 1992 by Muskogee-Cree medicine man; brother David is married to Simon's sister Nancy.

Biography

One might assume that being the daughter of one of the most famous playwrights and screenwriters in American history would have its perks, but for Ellen Simon, there was also a great deal of emotional trauma and pain. Her mother, Joan, a former dancer, died of bone cancer when Simon was 16. Searching for a spiritual center, Simon went to India in 1977, and returned with John Leland, a media consultant who was to become her first husband, and a desire to become a choreographer. After her marriage failed, Simon moved to Nyack, NY where she met astrophysicist Jeff Bishop. The two married in 1984 and relocated to Toronto where Bishop was pursuing studies. While living in Canada, Simon began to write scripts. Three months after she and Bishop returned to Nyack in 1987, Bishop was struck and killed by a car while jogging. Simon's family and friends helped her through the grieving process. She used the experience as the basis for a play, "Moonlight and Valentino," which was produced at a new playwrights festival at Duke University. An agent suggested that Simon turn the play into a feature. It took her several years to get around to it, but "Moonlight & Valentino" was sold to Working Title Films for $500,000 in 1992, and released as a motion picture starring Elizabeth Perkins, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner and Jon Bon Jovi in 1995. She also scripted the romantic comedy "One Fine Day" which stars Michelle Pfeiffer as a single mother romanced by George Clooney (1996).