Francis Ford Coppola

The illustrious Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in the grand city of Detroit, Michigan, but was raised in a creative and supportive New York family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a renowned composer and musician, and his mother, Italia Coppola née Pennino, was an esteemed actress. Francis Ford Coppola was a highly educated man, having graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University and doing graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He trained as an assistant with the illustrious filmmaker Roger Corman, taking on roles such as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer, and eventually director of his first feature film, Dementia 13. During the subsequent four years, Coppola worked on a variety of script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' This Property is Condemned, and screenplays for Is Paris Burning? and Patton, the film for which he won an Academy Award.