Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up
in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family.
His father, Carmine Coppola, was a
composer and musician. His mother,
Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an
actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from
Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was
training as assistant with filmmaker
Roger Corman, working in such capacities as
sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually,
director of Dementia 13 (1963),
Coppola's first feature film. During the next four years, Coppola was
involved in a variety of script collaborations, including writing an
adaptation of "This Property is Condemned" by
Tennessee Williams (with
Fred Coe and
Edith Sommer), and screenplays for
Brennt Paris? (1966) and
Patton: Rebell in Uniform (1970), the film for which Coppola
won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. In 1966, Coppola's 2nd
film brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts degree. In
1969, Coppola and George Lucas
established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company
based in San Francisco. The company's first project was
THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and
directed by Lucas. Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas
directed,
American Graffiti (1973), in
1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for
Best Picture. In 1971, Coppola's film
Der Pate (1972) became one of
the highest-grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for
writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The
film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola
a Best Director Oscar nomination. Following his work on the screenplay
for Der große Gatsby (1974),
Coppola's next film was
Der Dialog (1974), which
was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and
brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar
nominations. Also released that year,
Der Pate 2 (1974),
rivaled the success of
Der Pate (1972), and won six
Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and
writer. Coppola then began work on his most ambitious film,
Apocalypse Now (1979), a Vietnam
War epic that was inspired by
Joseph Conrad's
Herz in der Finsternis (1993).
Released in 1979, the acclaimed film won a Golden Palm Award at the
Cannes Film Festival, and two Academy Awards. Also that year, Coppola
executive produced the hit
Der schwarze Hengst (1979).
With George Lucas, Coppola
executive produced Kagemusha - Der Schatten des Kriegers (1980),
directed by Akira Kurosawa, and
Mishima - Ein Leben in vier Kapiteln (1985),
directed by Paul Schrader and
based on the life and writings of
Yukio Mishima. Coppola also executive
produced such films as
Der große Zauber (1982),
Hammett (1982)
Der schwarze Hengst kehrt zurück (1983),
Barfly (1987),
Wind (1992),
Der geheime Garten (1993), etc.
He helped to make a star of his nephew,
Nicolas Cage. Personal tragedy hit in 1986
when his son Gio died in a boating accident. Francis Ford Coppola is
one of America's most erratic, energetic and controversial filmmakers.
