RIP Jill Clayburgh

Update 11/08/2010: Clayburgh's Unforgettable 'Unmarried Woman' by Janet Maslin, The New York Times

As a young adult female in the 1970s, Jill Clayburgh represented strong and competent, but not flawless, women on the big screen in such films as An Unmarried Woman, Starting Over, and It's My Turn. Her performance in An Unmarried Woman had a tremendous impact on me as a young woman. Women were in transition; Erica and her friends were the precursors to the Sex and The City friends.

“An Unmarried Woman,” Jill Clayburgh finds herself suddenly single after her husband has an affair and leaves her. She meets a sexy artist but rejects his offer of a life together to pursue her own goals.


Saul: “Independent.”
Erica: “Trying to be.”

Clayburgh became the face of female empowerment in film. Rest in Peace.