Eleanor Coppola, a renowned documentarian, filmmaker and wife of Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, has died. She was 87.
In a statement shared with The Associated Press, the Coppola family announced that Eleanor died on Friday surrounded by her family at her home in Rutherford, California. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Eleanor rose to fame documenting her husband’s strenuous efforts to complete his 1979 war film. Apocalypse now. In the award-winning 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s ApocalypseEleanor, as was her nature, set herself the task of capturing as much behind-the-scenes footage as possible for a production that lasted a whopping 238 days. During this time, Francis has dealt with countless disasters – from movie star Martin Sheen’s heart attack to a typhoon that destroyed almost every set in the Philippines. As if that wasn’t already tragic, a crew member also died.
In a 1991 interview with CNNEleanor said she had “no idea” what kind of footage she would get from her efforts, adding she was “just trying to get busy with something because we’ve been out there for so long.”
In the end, Eleanor said she shot an incredible 60 hours of footage, launching a documentary project that would win two Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Information Programming – Directing and Outstanding Individual Achievement – Information Programming. Image editing.
Eleanor, a Los Angeles native and graduate of UCLA, met Francis on the set of his directorial debut, the 1962 horror film. Dementia 13. About a year later, she gave birth to the couple’s first son, Gian-Carlo Coppola. The couple had two more children – Roman in 1965 and Sofia in 1971. Gian-Carlo tragically died in a boating accident in 1986. He was 22.
After her 1991 documentary, Eleanor no longer wanted to direct until Francis convinced her to make her feature directorial debut with her 2016 film Paris can wait. She was 80 when she directed the romantic comedy starring Diane Lane.
“One morning at the breakfast table my husband said, ‘Well, you should direct.’ “I was absolutely terrified,” Eleanor once told The Associated Press. “But I said, ‘Well, I’ve never written a screenplay and I’ve never directed anything, why not? I kind of said ‘why not’ to everything.”
About four years later, Eleanor directed it Love is love is love. She also published two memoirs – in 1979 Notes: On the creation of “Apocalypse Now” and 2008 Notes on a life. According to the AP, Eleanor had recently completed the manuscript of her third memoir.
The matriarch of the family, who was married to Francis for 61 years, produced cinematic prodigies in Roman (CQ, A glimpse into the mind of Charles Swan III) and Sofia, who both grew up on their father’s famous sets. And Sofia received three Oscar nominations for her 2003 romantic comedy Lost in translation – won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, just like her father did with “1970s.” Patton. Sofia recently directed the critically acclaimed biopic “ Priscilla.
Eleanor, who also documented Sofia’s 2006 historical drama, Marie AntoinetteShe beamed with pride when asked how it felt to see her daughter win an Oscar Lost in translation.
“Well, I was deeply thrilled, especially because she’s a woman, and I found it so touching that the children actually reflect their parents and their upbringing, and the skills of their parents seem to have been passed on to their children,” Eleanor told CNN . “It was [a] It was a very emotional moment to see her. Especially because Francis won a screenwriting Oscar at the same age, both 32, so it was a touching life cycle.”
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