Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola got married to Eleanor Neil, after meeting her on the sets of ‘Dementia 13’, in 1963. The couple has three children together: Gian-Carlo, Roman and Sofia. Gian-Carlo died in a car accident at an early age.

Francis Ford Coppola was born in Michigan to Carmine and Italia Coppola. His father was a flautist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His father also worked as an arranger and assistant orchestra director for ‘The Ford Sunday Evening Hour’.

Coppola had polio in his early years, which meant that he was bedridden for a good part of his childhood. He was an average student in school but was known for his high curiosity in science and technology.

He was trained to be a musician in the beginning and became an expert of tuba, which fetched him a music scholarship in the New York Military Academy. He did his major in theater arts from Hofstra University in 1955.

Coppola did exceptionally well at the university. He founded the cinema workshop at Hofstra and also made contributions to their literary magazine. He won 3 D.H. Lawrence Awards for his directorial talent at the university and graduated in 1959.

Coppola entered UCLA Film School in 1960 and started experimenting with direction just when he entered the institute; he directed ‘The Two Christophers’, which was a short horror movie and ‘Tonight for Sure’––a light comedy.

In 1962, Roger Corman appointed Coppola as an assistant to re-edit a Russian sci-fi called ‘Nebo Zovyot’, which he turned into a sex-and-violence monster movie with his talent, titled ‘Battle Beyond the Sun’.

Corman was very happy with Coppola’s work and therefore kept offering him projects from 1962-1963. He was a dialogue director of the movie ‘Tower of London’, sound man for ‘The Young Racers’ and associate producer of ‘The Terror’.

On the persuasion of Corman, Coppola made ‘Dementia 13’ in 1963. He wrote the script of the movie in one night and directed it in just 9 days. The movie became a cult hit amongst the horror movie fans.

Coppola was hired by Seven Arts as a scriptwriter in 1965. The following year, he released ‘You’re a Big Boy Now’, which was a Warner Bros production and also his UCLA thesis project.

The most highlighted work of Coppola’s film career is considered to be ‘The Godfather (1972)’, ‘The Godfather Part II (1974)’ and ‘Apocalypse Now (1979)’. These movies established Coppola’s imaginative superiority over the other directors of his times.