Documentarian, author was filmmaking family matriarch
Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s 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 surrounded by family at home in Rutherford, California, her family announced in a statement. No cause of death was given.
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.” The couple were wed in Las Vegas in February 1963.
Their firstborn, GianCarlo, quickly became a regular presence in his father’s films, as did their subsequent children, Roman (born in 1965) and Sofia (born in 1971). After acting in their father’s films and growing up on sets, all would go into the movie industry.
“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 told The Associated
Press in 2017.
Gian-Carlo died at the age of 22 in a 1986 boating accident. He was killed while riding in a boat piloted by actor Ryan O’Neal’s son Griffin, who was found guilty of negligence.
Roman directed several movies of his own and regularly collaborates with
filmmaker Wes Anderson. He’s also president of his father’s San Francisco-based film company, American Zoetrope.
Sofia became one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of her generation as the writer-director of such films as 2003’s “Lost in Translation” and the 2023 biopic “Priscilla.”
Sofia dedicated that film to her mother.
Beginning on 1979’s “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. Actor 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, 1991’s “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.”
Eleanor also published “Notes: On the Making of ‘Apocalypse Now’” in 1979. While the movie focused on the film set’s tumult, the book charted some of her 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 discussed Francis having an extramarital affair.
They remained together, though, throughout her life. And Eleanor continued to seek creative outlets for herself. She documented several more of her husband’s films, as well as Roman’s “CQ” and Sofia’s “Marie Antoinette.”
In 2016, at the age of 80, Eleanor made her narrative debut in “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.”
She is survived by her husband; her son Roman and his wife, Jen, their children, Pascale, Marcello and Alessandro; her daughter Sofia and her husband, Thomas, their children Romy and Cosima; her granddaughter Gia and her husband, Honor, and their child, Beaumont; and by her brother William Neil and his wife, Lisa.