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
