Council Biography

Francis Ford Coppola M.F.A. ’67, Co-Chair

The son of composer and musician Carmine Coppola, Francis was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 7, 1939, but grew up in Queens and Long Island, New York, where his family settled shortly after his birth. As a young boy, he turned out 8mm "features" edited from home movies with such titles as "The Lost Wallet" and "The Grass is Very Dark." A bout with polio left him almost paralyzed for a year at age nine. Bedridden and isolated, he developed an interest in comic books, puppetry, ventriloquism and television. The Coppola family specialized in music, but Francis was only able to develop a proficiency in the tuba, and squeaked by with a musical scholarship to the New York Military Academy.

Coppola's early interest in the arts led to a major in theater at New YorkÕs Hofstra University and an M.F.A. in film from UCLA. Coppola entered Hofstra in 1955 to major in theater arts and became a driving force in the drama department, breaking new ground in student production. He was the founder of the still extant SPECTRUM PLAYERS. However, when Coppola viewed Eisenstein's "Ten Days That Shook the World," cinema became his passion. While at Hofstra, Coppola founded the cinema workshop, contributed to the campus literary magazine and won three D.H. Lawrence Awards for theatrical production and direction, and received the 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 at UCLA for graduate work in film, and supported himself by occasionally working as an editor on the new fad of the day: "nudie films." As editor, he was in charge of preparing the titles for films that were usually a hodge-podge of previous failed efforts and European nudies. Thinking that he'd possibly never see his name on the screen, he listed himself as director of "Tonight for Sure," "The Bellboy" and "The Playgirls," a fact which explains, to his own chagrin, why his list of directorial efforts erroneously begins with those titles.

While still at UCLA, Coppola worked as an all-purpose assistant to Roger Corman on a variety of modestly budgeted but lucrative 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 this 22-year-old's adaptability and perseverance, Corman made Coppola the dialogue director on "The Tower of London" (1962), sound man for "The Young Racers" (1963), and associate producer of "The Terror" (1964).

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 film from his own original screenplay. Perhaps 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 cult film among 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" and a documentary illuminating Coppola's work with actors in "John Grisham's The Rainmaker."

Coppola received the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Award presented to a UCLA student each year for the best novel or play; it was the first time a screenplay had won. ("Pilma, Pilma.") Impressed by his work, Seven Arts hired Coppola to adapt Carson McCuller's novel, "Reflections in a Golden Eye," as a vehicle for Marlon Brando. This led to an assignment on "Patton," the film for which he won his first 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 that wasn't really used for "Is Paris Burning?" (with Gore Vidal). Since Vidal and Coppola were the only writers of the multitude of writers on the project, they received the credit.

In 1966 Coppola directed his second film, "You're A Big Boy Now," which brought him critical attention and a master of fine arts degree from UCLA. 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.

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 John Milius, Carroll Ballard and John Korty. At Zoetrope, Coppola produced "THX-1138" and "American Graffiti," both directed by Lucas. "American Graffiti" received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

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" (1974), was honored with the Palmes d'Or 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" joined 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. It was also the very first American film entitled "Part II," a tradition he regrets. Along with that regret, Coppola was the first director to credit the entire crew in the end titles, and the first to give them "crew jackets."

Coppola then began his most ambitious film, "Apocalypse Now." This acclaimed movie won a Palmes d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and two Academy Awards. He was nominated for producer, director and writing Oscars. Coppola always sought better tools for filmmaking, and "Apocalypse Now" was the first feature film to be mixed on a computerized mixing console.

Coppola continued to pioneer the electronic cinema, and his 1982 film "One From The Heart" used a panoply of new techniques that have now become standard in the industry, including the present form of "video assist" now universally used in film production. Also during the 1980s, Coppola directed and produced "The Outsiders," a film credited with launching the careers of Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and Ralph Macchio. Coppola produced, directed and cowrote "Rumble Fish" and "The Cotton Club," directed "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Gardens of Stone," and "Tucker: A Man and His Dream." On Christmas Day 1990 "The Godfather Part III" was released.

Coppola pushed the horror genre to new levels with "Bram Stoker's Dracula," which won an Oscar for Best Costumes. He directed fellow San Franciscan Robin Williams in "Jack," one of the top 25 grossing films of 1996. Coppola directed and wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film, "John Grisham's The Rainmaker," which starred Matt Damon and Jon Voight.

In June 2000, Coppola launched the first virtual studio at www.zoetrope.com. The virtual studio is very much the descendent of the original Zoetrope Studios lot in Hollywood, which pioneered many of today's cinema technologies. "It is a studio without walls; the studio of the future, my dream studio," says Coppola. The introduction of zoetrope.com, an entirely Web-based and electronic film studio, takes Coppola's vision of Electronic Cinema into reality