Coppola, << KOP uh luh, >> Francis Ford (1939-…), is an American motion-picture director, producer, and writer. Many of his major films present a grim picture of modern society. His most important movies include The Godfather (1972), The Godfather, Part II (1974), and The Godfather, Part III (1990), which cover almost 100 years in the life of an American family involved in organized crime (see Godfather, The). The first two Godfather films each won the Academy Award for best picture. His Apocalypse Now (1979) was one of the first major American motion pictures to deal with the Vietnam War (1957-1975). The film was reissued in 2001 in an expanded version called Apocalypse Now Redux. Coppola won Academy Awards for co-writing the screenplays for Patton (1970) and the first two Godfather movies, and for directing The Godfather, Part II.
Coppola was born in Detroit on April 7, 1939. He received a Master of Cinema degree from UCLA in 1968. He submitted his first important film, You’re a Big Boy Now (1966), as his master’s thesis. He became the first major American director to begin his career from a university degree program in filmmaking. His success created opportunities for other college-trained filmmakers. Coppola’s other films include The Rain People (1969), The Conversation (1974), One from the Heart (1982), The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (both 1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Gardens of Stone (1987), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and The Rainmaker (1997). He also wrote and directed Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro (2009). Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola, is also a motion-picture director. His son Roman Coppola is a screenwriter and motion-picture director. Francis Ford Coppola’s sister, Talia Shire, and his nephew Nicolas Cage are well-known American actors. In 2010, Coppola received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his body of work from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
