Eleanor Coppola, best known as director of the documentary Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse and wife and collaborator of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, has died at age 87.
The Eleanor family issued a statement to the Associated Press on Friday confirming her death. No cause of death was given.
He met Francis in 1962 while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the low-budget horror film Dementia 13.
They struck up a romance, beginning a personal and professional relationship that lasted more than six decades until his death.
Throughout her career she directed several documentaries, often behind-the-scenes looks at the films of her husband and daughter Sofia Coppola.
Latest news, more details to come…
Eleanor Coppola, best known as the wife and collaborator of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, has died at age 87.
Francis and Eleanor, who had been together since they met on the set of his directorial debut in 1962, appear together in 1991.
Eleanor was born in Los Angeles and was largely raised by a single mother after her father died when she was just 10 years old.
After majoring in applied design at UCLA, she began a career as an assistant art director on film, which led her to the Irish set of Dementia 13.
Francis and Eleanor began dating during the filming of the film, and in 1963, she discovered that she was pregnant with his baby.
He convinced her not to give the baby up for adoption, and the couple married in a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas in 1963 before welcoming their son Gian-Carlo.
Although she spent much of the next few decades raising the couple’s children, Gian-Carlo, Roman, and Sofia, she remained in the film world through her husband.
She accompanied him to the sets of his films as his star rose in the early 1970s with films such as The Godfather, The Godfather II and The Conversation.
In the mid-1970s, Eleanor witnessed firsthand the chaotic making of her husband’s Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now.
Production in the Philippines was beset by one crisis after another, from a typhoon that destroyed sets to star Martin Sheen suffering a heart attack.
Eleanor directed several documentaries, often behind-the-scenes looks at her husband and daughter Sofia Coppola’s films; In the photo with Sofía in 2017.
Francis and Eleanor began dating during the filming of the film and in 1963, she discovered that she was pregnant with his baby; The couple is photographed in Vienna in 2006.
During their six-decade marriage, the couple welcomed three children: Gian-Carlo, who died in 1986, as well as filmmakers Sofia and Roman Coppola.
Eleanor remained at her husband’s side throughout his career, not only as a filmmaker but also when he launched a wine empire later in his life; photographed in 2013
He also made behind-the-scenes documentaries for his daughter’s films The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette; In the photo with Francis and Sofía at the Vanity Fair 2022 Oscar party
Eleanor revealed that at one point, the film went over budget by more than $2 million, an alarming amount in the mid-1970s.
The catastrophe occurred when two of the people hired to build a gigantic temple died in an accident during construction.
Putting her creative mind to work, Eleanor began filming the tumultuous production of what eventually became Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
She is one of multiple directors credited for the behind-the-scenes documentary, which premiered in 1991 and became a classic of the genre, to the point that it was even parodied in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder.
“I never intended to make the documentary of all documentaries,” he said. cnn years later. ‘I was just trying to keep busy with something to do because we were there for a long time. I had simply never shot a documentary before.”
She recalled: “They wanted five minutes for a TV promo or something and I thought sooner rather than later I could get five minutes of film and then they went to 15 minutes.” I kept shooting but I had no idea… of the evolution of myself that I saw with my camera. “It was a surprise for both of us and a life-changing experience.”
Eleanor also watched closely as her husband’s mood suffered as the tortuous filming of Apocalypse Now progressed.
I always felt that for him it was a journey upstream. He went deeper and deeper into himself and went deeper and deeper into the production. He just got out of control. He didn’t have the end. “I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he said.
Eleanor was one of the directors of the classic documentary Hearts Of Darkness, following the chaotic making of her husband’s 1979 Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now.
Eleanor also observed closely the way her husband’s mood suffered as the tortuous filming of Apocalypse Now progressed; he appears in Hearts Of Darkness
“I always felt like it was a journey upstream for him,” Eleanor said: “He went deeper and deeper into himself and deeper and deeper into production.”
“I never intended to make the documentary of all documentaries,” said Eleanor: “I was just trying to keep myself busy with something to do because we were there for a long time.”
Eleanor is one of multiple directors credited for the behind-the-scenes documentary, which premiered in 1991 and became a classic of the genre.
“The script evolved and the scenes changed; it just got bigger and more complex. And little by little he got to know his characters. That wasn’t the intention at all at the beginning.
After the uproar caused by Hearts Of Darkness, she continued her career as a documentary filmmaker, filming the making of her husband’s 1997 film, The Rainmaker.
He also made behind-the-scenes documentaries for his daughter’s films The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, as well as his son’s film Roman CQ.
Eleanor also explored her other interests in documentaries, such as the 1996 short film A Visit To China’s Miao Country.
In 2016, around his 80th birthday, he broke into narrative cinema directing the comedy Paris Can Wait, starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin.
He continued in the same vein and followed Paris Can Wait with the 2020 drama Love Is Love Is Love, whose cast included Chris Messina, Cybill Shepherd, Joanne Whalley, Rita Wilson and Rosanna Arquette.
Eleanor’s family life was rocked by tragedy in 1986, when her first-born son, Gian-Carlo, died in a speedboat accident, leaving behind a pregnant fiancée.
She remained at her husband’s side throughout his career, not only as a filmmaker but also when he launched a wine empire later in his life.
A few years ago, she was asked if her husband was different on the sets of his movies than at home with his family.
‘No. I think the fact that he spent his life as a director is something that is in his nature. It’s in his blood. “He’s always leading,” Eleanor said.
‘Then when he gets home he directs dinner, where we’re going to sit, what we’re going to eat. “I’ve adapted to it, so now it’s really fun.”