Francis Ford Coppola ( /ˈkoʊpələ/ ), born April 7, 1939 is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors and he epitomized the group of filmmakers known as the New Hollywood, that includes Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, William Friedkin, Philip Kaufman and George Lucas, who emerged in the early 1970s with unconventional ideas that challenged contemporary film-making.
He co-wrote the script for Patton (1970), which won him an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay). His directorial fame escalated with the release of The Godfather (1972), a film which revolutionized movie-making in the gangster genre, earning praise from critics and public alike. It won three Academy Awards, including his second for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (with Mario Puzo), Best Picture and Best Actor (for Marlon Brando) and a nomination for Best Director. It was instrumental in cementing his position as a prominent American film director.
Coppola followed it with a critically successful sequel, The Godfather Part II (1974), which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film was highly praised and won him three Academy Awards: for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. The Conversation, which Coppola directed, produced and wrote, was released that same year, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. He next directed Apocalypse Now (1979), notorious for its over-long and strenuous production, but critically acclaimed for its vivid and stark depiction of the Vietnam War, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola is one of only eight filmmakers to win two Palme d'Or awards and is the only filmmaker to win both in the same decade.
Many of Coppola's ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were critically lauded, but he has never quite achieved the same commercial success with films as in the 1970s.
Read more about Francis Ford Coppola: Early Life, Other Ventures, Personal Life, Honors, Filmography
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“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
“I have always believed helping your fellow man is profitable in every sense, personally and bottom line.”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
“I hardly said a word to my wife until I said ‘yes’ to divorce.”
—John Milius, U.S. screenwriter, Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939)
“Sir Francis, Sir Francis, Sir Francis is come;”
—Unknown. Upon Sir Francis Drake’s Return from His Voyage about the World, and the Queen’s Meeting Him (l. 1)
“Every family has bad memories.”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had to hailbomb, for twelve hours, and when it was all over I walked up.... We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinking dink
body. That smell, you know, that gasoline smell. The whole hill. It smelled like ... victory.”
—John Milius, U.S. screenwriter, Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939)