Guests

Francis Ford Coppola

Season 7, Episode 711

Original Airdate: May 6, 2001

Francis Ford Coppola was born April 7, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. Growing up in a New York suburb, he was surrounded by a creative and supportive family, his father, a composer, and his mother a former actress. At the age of ten, he came down with polio, and amused himself by creating puppet shows and making an 8mm film. Later, he graduated with a degree in Drama from Hofstra University and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking.

Francis Ford Coppola was an apprentice to filmmaker Roger Corman working in various roles such as soundman, dialogue director, associate producer and eventually as director of Dementia 13. During the next four years, Coppola was involved in a variety of script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of This Property is Condemned (1966), by Tennessee Williams, and screenplays for Is Paris Burning? (1966), and Patton (1970). Patton won Coppola an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1966, Coppola's second film, You're a Big Boy Now, brought him critical acclaim and weightier assignments like Finian's Rainbow (1968) and The Rain People (1969).

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 (1970) produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas.

In 1972, Coppola established himself as a major director and screenwriter with Best Picture academy award winner The Godfather. Coppola also garnered an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo, and a nomination for best director. He followed this success with a second teaming with director George Lucas to produce American Graffiti (1973). This film received five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.

Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola's next film was The Conversation (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, The Godfather: Part II, rivaled the success of its predecessor, 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 notoriously difficult to shoot. 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 The Black Stallion (1979).

Other directorial efforts include Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) starring nephew Nicolas Cage, Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). With George Lucas, Coppola executive produced Kagemusha, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Coppola also produced and executive produced such films as Barfly (1987), The Secret Garden (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999), and The Virgin Suicides (2000), which was directed by his daughter Sofia.