Eleanor Coppola — a filmmaker who won an Emmy for capturing husband Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary 238-day production of his own film, “Apocalypse Now,” — died Friday at the age of 87.
She was surrounded by loved ones at her home in Rutherford, Calif., according to statement released by her family. A cause of death was not given.
Coppola was the matriarch of a family of filmmakers, helping to raise three children who all became involved in the family business as she continued to chronicle their films.
“I may hold the world’s record for the person who has made the most documentaries about their family directing films,” she once said.
In her 2008 memoir, “Notes on a Life,” she wrote, “I am an observer at heart, who has the impulse to record what I see around me.”
The family said Eleanor recently completed her third memoir, which has not yet been released.
Eleanor’s oldest child, son Gian-Carlo, served as a background actor in many of his father’s films and had begun doing second-unit photography before his death at the age of 22 — the result of a tragic boating accident in 1986. His fiancée, Jacqui de la Fontaine, was pregnant at the time with their daughter, Gia.
Eleanor’s other son, 58-year-old Roman Coppola, has directed two feature films, including “CQ,” which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. He currently serves as the president of his father’s production company, American Zoetrope.
Daughter Sofia Coppola, 52, has become a prolific director and screenwriter, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her 2003 film “Lost in Translation.” Her most recent project, 2023’s “Priscilla,” follows the life of Priscilla Presley and her complicated relationship with Elvis. Sofia dedicated the film to her mother.
“I don’t know what the family has given except I hope they’ve set an example of a family encouraging each other in their creative process whatever it may be,” Eleanor said in an interview from 2017. “It happens in our family that everyone chose to sort of follow in the family business. We weren’t asking them to or expecting them to, but they did. At one point Sofia said, ‘The nut does not fall far from the tree.’”
Eleanor spent her childhood in Orange County, Calif., and later studied design at UCLA. She met Francis while serving as an assistant art director on his first film, “Dementia 13″ (1963). They married in Las Vegas the same year the movie was released.
Eleanor is survived by her husband; Roman and his three children; Sofia and her two children; and granddaughter Gia Coppola and her son.
With News Wire Services
