Francis Ford Coppola - Biography

Last Editor: lindcha				Francis Ford Coppola Biography -   Name : Francis Ford Coppola Profession : Writer/Director Birth Details : born April 7, 1939 Birth name : Francis Ford Coppola Height : 6' (1.83 m) Personal quotes : Happiness is happiness. [On his film, Apocalypse Now (1979), at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival] "My movie is not about Vietnam... my movie is Vi Salary : The Godfather: Part III (1990) $6,000,000 + % of profits The Cotton Club (1984) $2,500,000 + % of the gross The Godfather: Part II (1974) $1 million t Spouse : Eleanor Coppola (February 1963 - present) 4 children Trade mark : Frequently casts relatives. Includes the original author's name in the title of his adaptations (ie Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Bram Stoker's Dracu

Francis Ford Coppola Trivia -

Caught polio when he was a child. During his quarantine, he practiced puppetry. Some sources say he is the uncle of Alan Coppola, but Alan's name does not appear on any family tree authorized by the Coppola family. Like Martin Scorsese, Coppola was a sickly youth, a case of polio which allowed him time to indulge in puppet theater and home movies. Brother of Talia Shire. Father of Mary Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Roman Coppola & Gian-Carlo Coppola Son of composer Carmine Coppola. Uncle of Nicolas Cage, Christopher Coppola Marc Coppola, Robert Schwartzman, Jason Schwartzman, 'John Schwartzman (I)', and Stephanie Schwartzman. M.F.A. from University of California. [1967] Since 1978, owner and operator of a Rutherford, California vineyard making Rubicon wine. Coppola began his winery enterprise by buying portion of historic Inglenook estate in 1975. His success in field is explored in book "A Sense of Place" by Steven Kolpan, 1999. Brother-in-law of Bill Neil. Was in the early stages of developing a script for a fourth Godfather film with Mario Puzo which was to tell the story of the early lives of Sonny, Fredo and Michael. After Puzo's death in July of 1999, Coppola abandoned the project, stating that he couldn't do it without his friend. As of 2002, he is one of only four people to simultaneously win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (the other three being James L. Brooks, Billy Wilder, and Leo McCarey). As of May 2002, the number of Coppola-family members appearing in or contributing to filmmaking stands at thirteen, spread over three generations. Francis Ford Coppola has been in competition with Bob Fosse on several occasions. In 1972, Coppola was nominated for the Best Director Oscar (The Godfather), but lost to Fosse (Cabaret). In 1974, Fosse was nominated for Best Director (Lenny) but lost to Coppola (The Godfather Part II). In 1979, both were nominated as directors (Apocalypse Now and All That Jazz), but both lost. When Fosse won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (Coppola won the previous year), he tied with Akira Kurasawa, whose movie was produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Uncle of Matthew Orlando Shire, John Schwartzman and Stephanie Schwartzman. Grandfather of Gia Coppola. Father of Gian-Carlo Coppola. Great-uncle of Weston Coppola Cage. Has released his own line of specialty foods. As a child his bedroom was covered with pictures of his favourite film star, Jane Powell. When he discovered she´d married Geary Anthony Steffen, Jr. he tore them all down. His wife arranged for him to meet Jane Powell as a 40th birthday present. Out of all his peers who rose to fame and power in the 1970s "Golden Age" era, he is perhaps the only filmmaker still married to his first wife. Frequently casts Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Nicolas Cage, Diane Keaton, Matt Dillon, and Laurence Fishburne. Made a commercial for Suntory whiskey with legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa in the 1970s, an event which later influenced a salient plot point in his daughter Sofia's movie, Lost in Translation (2003). Was voted the 21st Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 227-234. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. George Lucas said that he based the Han Solo character from the Star Wars trilogy on Coppola. Serves as the Honorary Ambassador of the Central American nation of Belize in San Francisco, California, USA. On their official roster of worldwide honorary consulates found on their official website, he is referred to as "His Excellency Ambassador Francis Ford Coppola," although he is not a Belizean citizen. In 1971 and 1973, George C. Scott and Marlon Brando refused their respective Best Actor awards for Patton (1970) and The Godfather (1972) - both written by Coppola. Four of his relatives have been involved in the Star Wars films of his friend George Lucas. His brother-in-law, Bill Neil, worked at Industrial Light and Magic during the production of the original trilogy. His daughter, Sophia, and son, Roman, played a handmaiden and Naboo guard, respectively, in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. His nephew, Christopher Neil, who worked as a dialogue coach for both Francis (on Jack and The Rainmaker) and Sophia (on The Virgin Suicides), did the same job on Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith--a job for which Coppola recommended him. In addition, his late older son was named Gian-Carlo. In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there is a Naboo vehicle called the Gian Speeder. Often casts his own real-life extended family members in his films. In the case of the Godfather films, their characters' relationships to Michael Corleone often paralleled their real-life relationship to Coppola. He cast his sister, Talia Shire, as Michael's sister Connie, and his daughter, Sofia Coppola, as Michael's daughter Mary - named for Coppola's other daughter. In addition, Diane Keaton said that she modeled her performance as Kay Adams after Elanor Coppola, since both Kay and Coppola are protestants who married into Italian Catholic families. Since the mid-90s, he has been writing and re-writing an original screenplay entitled "Megalopolis". Described as "one man's quest to build utopia set in modern-day New York," the project has been delayed due to Coppola's constant tinkering with the script and the fact that the director is attempting to finance it himself. Several A-list actors have had their names attached to it and a great excess of second-unit footage (shot in 24p HD) has been captured by Coppola and the film's cinematographer, Ron Fricke of 'Baraka' (1992) fame. Directed 12 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Geraldine Page, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo, Lee Strasberg, Talia Shire, Kathleen Turner, Andy Garcia and Martin Landau. Brando and De Niro won their Oscar for their performances as Vito Corleone. In 1975, he accepted the Oscar for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" on behalf of Robert De Niro, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony. De Niro won for his performance in Coppola's The Godfather: Part II (1974). The only person to direct a sibling in an Oscar-nominated performance (his sister Talia Shire was nominated as "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" for The Godfather: Part II (1974)) He and his sister Talia Shire are the first brother and sister to be Oscar-nominated in the same year (1975) President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996 He is among an elite group of five directors who have won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (Original/Adapted) for the same film. In 1975 he won all three for The Godfather: Part II (1974). The others are Leo McCarey, Billy Wilder, James L. Brooks and Peter Jackson. Co-owns the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco with Robert DeNiro and fellow Bay area resident Robin Williams Was involved in both movies that his father and his daughter won Oscars: He was the director of _The Godfather: Part II (1974)_ which won his father an Oscar for "Best Music, Original Dramatic Score" and he was the executive producer of Lost in Translation (2003) which won his daughter the Oscar for "Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen" There are three generations of Oscar winners in the Coppola family: Francis, his father Carmine Coppola, his nephew Nicolas Cage and his daughter Sofia Coppola. They are the second family to do so, the first family is the Hustons - Anjelica Huston, John Huston and Walter Huston. Since the mid-90s (and possibly even earlier), he has been writing and re-writing an original screenplay entitled "Megalopolis". Described as "one man's quest to build utopia set in modern-day New York," the project has been delayed due to Coppola's constant tinkering with the script and the fact that the director is attempting to finance it himself. Several A-list actors have had their names attached to it and a great excess of second-unit footage (shot in 24p HD) has been captured by Coppola and the film's cinematographer, Ron Fricke of _Baraka_ (1992) fame.

Francis Ford Coppola Detailed Biography -

Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, screenwriter, vintner, magazine publisher, and hotelier, most renowned for directing the highly regarded Godfather trilogy and the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now. Coppola was born into a creative and supportive Italian American family in Detroit, Michigan, but he grew up in a New York suburb. His father Carmine Coppola, was a a composer and musician. His mother is alleged to have been an actress, but this is not fact. He studied theatre at Hofstra University prior to studying film at UCLA and while there, he made numerous short films, including some soft core porn films. In the early 1960s, he started his professional career making low-budget films with Roger Corman and writing screenplays. His first notable motion picture was made for Corman, the low-budget Dementia 13 (which is available on video). On the set of Finian's Rainbow with Petula Clark After graduating to mainstream motion pictures with You're a Big Boy Now, Coppola was offered the reins of the movie version of the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, starring Petula Clark, in her first American film, and veteran Fred Astaire. Producer Jack Warner was nonplussed by Coppola's shaggy-haired, bearded, "hippie" appearance and generally left him to his own devices. He took his cast to the Napa Valley for much of the outdoor shooting, but these scenes were in sharp contrast to those obviously filmed on a Hollywood soundstage, resulting in a disjointed look to the film. Dealing with outdated material at a time when the popularity of film musicals was already on the downslide, Coppola's end result was only semi-successful, but his work with Clark no doubt contributed to her Golden Globe Best Actress nomination. In 1971, Coppola won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Patton. However, his name as a filmmaker was made as the co-writer and director of The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), which both won the Academy Award for Best Picture — the latter being the first sequel to do so. In between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Coppola directed The Conversation, a story of a paranoid wiretapping and surveillance expert (played by Gene Hackman) who finds himself caught up in a possible murder plot. The Conversation was released to theaters in 1974 and was also nominated for Best Picture, resulting in Coppola being the first filmmaker to have directed two films competing for the same Best Picture Oscar since the annual number of nominees was cut down to five in 1945. (This had previously been accomplished seven times, by six different directors, between 1937 and 1943, when the Academy announced ten nominees yearly. Coppola's feat would later be matched by Herbert Ross in 1978, with The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, and Steven Soderbergh in 2001, with Erin Brockovich and Traffic.) While The Godfather Part II won the Oscar, The Conversation won the 1974 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. During this period he also wrote the screenplay for the critically and commercially unsuccessful 1974 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford) and produced George Lucas's breakthrough film, American Graffiti. Following the success of The Godfather and its sequel, Coppola set about filming Apocalypse Now, an ambitious version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, with the setting changed from colonial Africa to the Vietnam War. Before setting off to make the film, Coppola went to his mentor Roger Corman for advice about shooting in the Philippines, since Corman himself was familiar with shooting a film in that area. It was said that all Corman advised Coppola was "Don't go". The creation of the film was a disaster from the start, being beset by numerous problems, including typhoons, nervous breakdowns, Martin Sheen's heart attack, and an unprepared Marlon Brando with a bloated appearance (which Coppola attempted to hide by shooting him in the shadows). It was delayed so often it was nicknamed Apocalypse Whenever. The film was equally lauded and hated by critics when it finally appeared in 1979, and the cost nearly bankrupted Coppola's nascent studio American Zoetrope. However, like Citizen Kane, reputation has grown in time and Apocalypse Now is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood era. Roger Ebert considers it to be the finest film on the Vietnam war and included it on his list for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll for the greatest movie of all time. However to many Apocalypse Now represents Coppola's highpoint. A feat he has been unable to equal or exceed ever since. The 1991 documentary film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, directed by Eleanor Coppola (Francis's wife), Fax Bahr, and George Hickenlooper, chronicles the difficulties the crew went through making Apocalypse Now, and features behind the scenes footage filmed by Eleanor. George Lucas, Michael Jackson and Francis Ford Coppola filming Captain EO Despite the setbacks and ill health Coppola suffered during the making of Apocalypse Now, he kept up with film projects, presenting in 1981 a restoration of the 1927 film Napoléon that was edited and released in the United States by American Zoetrope. However it wasn't until the experimental musical One from the Heart (1982) that he returned to directing. Unfortunately, the film was a huge failure, although it developed a cult following in later years. In 1986 Coppola, with George Lucas, directed the Michael Jackson film for Disney theme parks, Captain Eo, which at the time was the most expensive film per minute ever made. In 1990 he completed the Godfather series with The Godfather Part III which, while not as critically acclaimed as the first two movies, was still a box office success. Some reviewers criticized the casting of Coppola's daughter Sofia, who stepped into a role abandoned by Winona Ryder just as filming began. Sofia Coppola had previously appeared in her father's films, including a memorable performance as the younger sister in Peggy Sue Got Married, but her performance in The Godfather Part III was subjected to critical ridicule, much of it mean-spirited. Sofia Coppola has since gone on to become a well-respected director in her own right. Son Roman Coppola is also a filmmaker, directing his first feature film, CQ. Coppola's father Carmine was a renowned composer and musician, and wrote the scores of many of his son's films; his nephew Nicolas Cage is an acclaimed actor. In recent years, Coppola with his family has extended his talents to winemaking in California's Napa Valley at the Niebaum-Coppola Winery, producing a line of specialty pastas and pasta sauces, and opening resorts in Guatemala and Belize, inspired by his accommodation in the Philippines during the making of Apocalypse Now, with decor supervised by Eleanor Coppola. In 1997, Coppola founded Zoetrope All-Story, a flashy literary magazine that publishes short stories. The magazine has published fiction by T.C. Boyle and Amy Bloom and essays by David Mamet, Steven Spielberg, and Salman Rushdie. Since its founding, the magazine has grown in reputation to become one of the premier American journals of literary fiction. Coppola serves as founding editor and publisher of All-Story. The director is based in the San Francisco Bay Area where he co-owns the Rubicon restaurant alongside fellow San Franciscan Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. In addition to his restaurant, Coppola serves as the Honorary Ambassador of the Central American nation of Belize in San Francisco, California. On their official roster of worldwide honorary consulates found on their official website, he is referred to as "His Excellency Ambassador Francis Ford Coppola," although he is not a Belizean citizen. Recently, during November 2005, Coppola took part as a special guest in the 46th Thessaloniki Film Festival, in northern Greece.