Eleanor Coppola, an award-winning filmmaker and the spouse of director Francis Ford Coppola, has died. She was 87 years outdated.
In an announcement shared with the Related Press, the Coppola household introduced that she handed away “surrounded by her household” at her house in Rutherford, California, on Friday, April 12. Her explanation for dying was not revealed.
Born in Los Angeles, California, on Might 4, 1936, Eleanor was raised in Orange County earlier than returning to L.A. to review at UCLA, the place she met husband Francis, 84, engaged on the set of his 1963 horror movie, Dementia 13, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The pair wed in February that 12 months and share three kids collectively: son Gian-Carlo – who died at age 22 in a boating accident in 1986 – son Roman, 58, and daughter Sofia, 55.
Although Eleanor all the time had an curiosity in movie, it wasn’t till she picked up a digicam to shoot behind-the-scenes footage of husband Francis’ award-winning film Apocalypse Now, whose chaotic manufacturing ran for greater than 230 days, that she actually found her ardour for the craft.
“I don’t know if [Francis] is simply attempting to maintain me busy or if he needs to keep away from the addition of knowledgeable crew,” she wrote in Notes: The Making of Apocalypse Now. “Perhaps each.”
The footage captured by Eleanor on the set of her husband’s 1978 warfare movie earned her an Emmy Award in 1992 for Excellent Particular person Achievement – Informational Programming – Directing for Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
“The start of the movie concept for me was definitely documenting Apocalypse Now,” she informed Deadline in 2017. “I had no concept. I’d made some little artwork movies within the early ’70s, however after I bought this digicam within the Philippines I used to be simply mesmerized, trying via the viewfinder. I actually responded to that, so I made completely different documentaries, as a result of I all the time beloved to shoot.”
Along with Hearts of Darkness, Eleanor additionally directed documentaries chronicling the making of daughter Sofia’s The Virgin Suicides in 1999 and Marie Antoinette in 2006, and directed the 2016 rom-com Paris Can Wait. Her final director credit score was 2020’s Love Is Love Is Love.
In October final 12 months, Sofia skipped the New York Movie Pageant for the screening of her movie Priscilla to spend time together with her mom.
“I’m so sorry to not be there with you, however I’m with my mom, to whom this movie is devoted,” the writer-director wrote in an announcement learn by producer Youree Henley on the time.