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Revision as of 22:05, 27 July 2002 by 12.72.137.118 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)American film director, born 1939. Coppola studied film at UCLA and while there, he made numerous short films. In the last 1960s, he started his professinal career making low-budget films with Roger Corman and writing. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Patton." However, his name as a filmmaker was made in the 1970s as the co-writer and director of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, which both won the "Best Picture" Academy Award, the latter being the first (only?) sequel to do so. Following their success he set about filming an ambitious version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, set during the Vietnam war. The film (Apocalypse Now) was beset by numerous problems, including typhoons, drug abuse, and nervous breakdowns, and delayed so often it was nicknamed Apocalypse Whenever. The film was equally lauded and hated by critics when it finally appeared, and the cost nearly bankrupted Coppola's nascent studio American Zoetrope. After a lengthy layoff Coppola returned to directing, with some commercial and critical success. The Godfather Part III, third installment in that saga, appeared in 1990.
He also produced George Lucas' breakthrough film, American Grafitti.
Famous Films:
- Apocalypse Now
- The Godfather
- The Conversation
- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- Jack
- The Secret Garden
Just Films:
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream, 1988, About Preston Tucker and the Tucker automobile. Frances Ford Coppola owns one of the remaining 46 Tuckers