He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest directors of all time. Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of The Godfather , which won Academy Awards for Best Picture , Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay and revolutionized the gangster genre. His next film, the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now , had a notoriously lengthy and strenuous production and also won the Palme d'Or, making Coppola one of only ten filmmakers to have won the award twice.
Coppola's father Carmine was a composer whose music featured in his son's films. Many of his relatives have found success in film: his sister Talia Shire is an actress, his daughter Sofia is a director, his son Roman is a screenwriter and his nephews Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage are actors. Coppola resides in Napa, California , and since the s has been a vintner , owning a family-branded winery of his own. When you spend enough time with Francis, you begin to believe you can jump off cliffs, too.
His paternal grandparents came to the United States from Bernalda , Basilicata. Francis is the middle of three children: his older brother was August Coppola , and his younger sister is actress Talia Shire.
They settled in Woodside, Queens , where Coppola spent the remainder of his childhood. Having contracted polio as a boy, Coppola was bedridden for large periods of his childhood, during which he did homemade puppet theater productions.
He developed an interest in theater after reading A Streetcar Named Desire at age He entered Hofstra University in as a theater arts major. There, he was awarded a scholarship in playwriting. This furthered his interest in directing theater, though his father disapproved and wanted him to study engineering.
