Eleanor Coppola, matriarch of the Coppola filmmaking family, dies at 87

JAKE COYLE and LINDSEY BAHR April 12, 2024

Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of

her

husband Francis Ford Coppolas iconic films, including the infamously tortured production of Apocalypse Now, and who raised a family of filmmakers, has died. She was 87.

Coppola died Friday at home in Rutherford, Calif., her family announced in a statement.

Eleanor, who grew

up

in Orange County,

California,

met Francis while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the Roger Corman-produced 1963 horror film Dementia 13. (She had studied design at UCLA.) Within months of

starting to date,dating,

Eleanor became pregnant and the couple were wed in Las Vegas in February 1963.

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Their first-born, Gian-Carlo, quickly became a regular presence in his fathers films, as did their subsequent children, Roman (born in 1965) and Sofia (born in 1971). After acting in their fathers films and growing up on sets, all

three

would go into the movie

busines

s.

I dont know what the family has given except I hope theyve set an example of a family encouraging each other in their creative process whatever it may be, Eleanor told

t

he Associated Press in 2017. It happens in our family that everyone chose to sort of follow in the family business. We werent asking them to or expecting them to, but they did. At one point Sofia said, The nut does not fall far from the tree.

Gian-Carlo, whos seen in the background of many of his fathers films and had begun doing second-unit photography, died at

the

age

of

22 in a 1986 boating accident. He was killed while riding in a boat piloted by

Griffin ONeal, son of

the lateRyan ONeal’s son Griffin O’Neal, who was found guilty of negligence.

Roman directed several movies of his own and regularly collaborates with Wes Anderson. He is president of his fathers San Francisco-based film company, American Zoetrope.

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Sofia became one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of her generation as the writer-director of films including Lost in Translation and the 2023 release Priscilla. Sofia dedicated that film to her mother.

In joining the family business, the Coppola children werent just following in their fathers footsteps but their mothers too. Beginning on 1979s Apocalypse Now, Eleanor frequently documented the behind-the-scenes life of Francis films. The Philippines-set shoot of Apocalypse Now lasted 238 days. A typhoon destroyed sets. Martin Sheen had a heart attack. A member of the construction crew died.

Eleanor documented much of the chaos in what would become one of the most famous making-of films about moviemaking, 1991s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse.

I was just trying to keep myself occupied with something to do because we were out there for so long, Eleanor told CNN in 1991. They wanted five minutes for a TV promotional or something and I thought sooner

of

or later I could get five minutes of film and then it went on to 15 minutes.

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I just kept shooting but I had no idea … the evolution of myself that I saw with my camera, continued Eleanor, who ended up shooting 60 hours’ worth of footage. So it was a surprise for both of us and a life-changing experience.

Eleanor also published Notes: On the Making of Apocalypse Now in 1979. While the documentary

film

focused on the film set tumult, the book charted some of Eleanors inner turmoil, including the challenges of being married to a larger-than-life figure. She wrote of being a woman isolated from my friends, my affairs and my projects during their year in Manila. She also frankly discusses Francis having an extramarital affair.

There is part of me that has been waiting for Francis to leave me, or die, so that I can get my life the way I want it,

wrote

Eleanor wrote. I wonder if I have the guts to get it the way I want it with him in it.

They remained together, though, throughout her life. And Eleanor continued to seek out creative outlets for herself. She documented several more of her husbands films, as well as Romans CQ and Sofias Marie Antoinette. She wrote a memoir in 2008, Notes on a Life.

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In 2016, at

the

age

of

81

0

, Eleanor made her narrative film directing debut with Paris Can Wait, a romantic comedy starring Diane Lane. She followed that up with Love Is Love Is Love in 2020. Eleanor had initially set out only to write the screenplay to Paris Can Wait.

One morning at the breakfast table my husband said, Well, you should direct it. I was totally startled, Eleanor told

t

he AP. But I said, Well, I never wrote a script before and Ive never directed, why not? I was kind of saying Why not to everything.

Coyle and Bahr are film writers for the Associated Press.