Biography for
Ann Landers (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

4 July 1918, Sioux City, Iowa, USA

Date of Death

22 June 2002, Chicago, Illinois, USA (multiple myeloma)

Birth Name

Esther Pauline Friedman

Nickname

Eppie

Height

5' 2" (1.57 m)

Spouse

Jules Lederer

(2 July 1939 - 17 October 1975) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Popular newspaper advice columnist.

Attended Morningside College.

She and her sister and their husbands married in a double ceremony.

Was the daughter of Russian immigrants.

Identical twin sister of Abigail Van Buren (who wrote for the advice column "Dear Abby"). She is 17 minutes older than Abby.

A 1978 World Almanac survey named her the most influential woman in the United States.

At the time of her death, her column was carried in more than 1,200 newspapers around the world, with a readership of 90 million.

Her column first appeared in print October 16, 1955, in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Once referred to Pope John Paul II as a "polack" but later apologized for doing so.

One daughter, Margo Howard (with husband Jules Lederer).

Psychology Today once gave her credit for likely having more influence on the way people work out their problems than any other person of her era.

Coined the phrase "wake up and smell the coffee".

Daughter, Margo Howard, also has an advice column, called "Dear Prudence", which appears in Slate magazine.

She became the first journalist to win the Albert Lasker Public Service Award for her efforts in persuading Congress to approve millions of dollars for cancer research. (Ironically, she would later die of cancer herself).

Married Jules Lederer, founder of the Budget Rent-a-Car, and her sister Pauline married Morton Phillips in an elaborate Orthodox Jewish double wedding in the twins' hometown of Sioux City.

Former mother-in-law of Ken Howard.

Grandmother of Adam Coleman Howard.

Personal Quotes

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

I owe a lot to my parents and to my Iowa heritage. I think that middle American values have helped me tremendously - the principles, the morality.

I would rather have my column on a thousand refrigerator doors than win a Pulitzer.

I intend to crank out this column as long as you find me useful and the good Lord gives me the strength to do it.

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

Time wounds all heels.