Biography: Francis Ford Coppola
Filmmaker, Producer and Screenwriter

Francis Ford Coppola Date of birth: April 7, 1939


The son of composer and musician Carmine Coppola, Francis was born in Detroit, Michigan but grew up in Queens, New York, where his family settled shortly after his birth. Coppola entered Hofstra University in 1955 to major in theater arts and tackled those arts vigorously both in and out of the classroom. He was elected president of The Green Wig, the university's drama group, the Kaleidoscopians, its musical comedy club, and then merged the two into The Spectrum Players. Under his leadership, they staged a new production each week. Coppola won three D. H. Lawrence Awards for theatrical production and direction, and received a Beckerman Award for his outstanding contributions to the school's theater arts division.

After earning his B.A. in theater arts in 1959, he enrolled in UCLA for graduate work in film. While still at UCLA, Coppola worked as an all-purpose assistant to Roger Corman on a variety of modestly-budgeted films. Coppola then wrote an English-language version of a Russian science-fiction movie, transforming it into a monster feature that American International released in 1963 as Battle Beyond the Sun. Impressed by the 24 year-old's adaptability and perseverance, Corman made Coppola the dialogue director on The Tower of London, sound man for The Young Racers and associate producer of The Terror.


While on location in Ireland for The Young Racers in 1962, Coppola proposed an idea that appealed to Corman's passion for thrift. On a budget of a fistful of dollars, Coppola directed in a period of just nine days, Dementia 13, his first feature from his own original screenplay. Somewhat superior to the run-of-the-mill exploitation films being turned out at that time, the film recouped its shoestring expenses and went on to become a minor cult film among the horror buffs. It was on the set of Dementia 13 that Coppola met Eleanor Neil, who would later become his wife, author of Notes, and director of the Apocalypse Now documentary footage used in Hearts of Darkness.

When he won the annual Samuel Goldwyn Award for the best screenplay (Pilma, Pilma) written by a UCLA student, Seven Arts hired Coppola to adapt the late Carson McCuller's novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, as a vehicle for Marlon Brando (who was to star for Coppola, later, in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now).


In 1966 Coppola directed his second film, You're a Big Boy Now, which brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts Degree. He then directed the motion picture adaptation of the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, followed by another original work, The Rain People, grand prize winner at the 1970 San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Reflections in a Golden Eye also led him to assignment on Patton (with Edmund H. North), the film for which he won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. During the next four years, Coppola was involved with further production work and script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of This Property is Condemned by Tennessee Williams (with Fred Coe and Edith Sommer), and a screenplay for Is Paris Burning? (with Gore Vidal).

In 1969 Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The establishment of American Zoetrope created opportunities for other filmmakers, including Lucas, John Milius, Carroll Ballard and John Korty.


In 1971 Coppola's film, The Godfather, became one of the highest-grossing movies in history, and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo. The film received an Academy Award for Best Picture and a Best Director nomination.


Coppola's next film, The Conversation, was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Also in 1974, Coppola wrote the screenplay for The Great Gatsby, and The Godfather, Part II was released. The Godfather, Part II rivaled its predecessor as a high-grosser at the box office and won six Academy awards. Coppola won Oscars as the Producer, Director and Writer. No sequel before or since has ever been so honored. In all, Coppola had won six Oscars by the time he was 36.

At Zoetrope, Coppola produced THX-1138, and American Graffiti, directed by George Lucas. American Graffiti received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

Coppola then began his most ambitious film, Apocalypse Now. This acclaimed movie won a Golden Palm Award from the Cannes Film Festival and two Academy Awards. He was nominated for producer, director and writing Oscars. The film was shot in the jungles of the Philippines over the course of a difficult year, chronicled in the documentary film Hearts of Darkness.


Coppola's idiosyncratic musical fantasy One From the Heart, pioneered the use of video-editing techniques which are standard practice in the film industry today. At the time, however, the picture made back less than $8 million of the $25 million Coppola spent producing it, most of which came from his own pocket. In 1983, Copolla was forced to sell his beloved Zoetrope Studio. While some in the film industry predicted the end of Coppola's career, he began his comeback immediately with a startling variety of films, many highly commercial, including Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Peggy Sue Got Married, Gardens of Stone, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jack. With the release of The Godfather III in 1990, his professional vindication was complete.

Today, he is the proprietor of a highly successful winery in California's Napa Valley, and a mountain resort in Belize. He is at work on a movie of The Rainmaker, based on the novel by John Grisham.