The Coppola clan mourns: She signed the biggest cast of all time, Eleanor Coppola has left us at the age of 87

Surrounded by family in Rutherford, Calif., Eleanor Coppola died Friday at the age of 87, her relatives said (via the Associated Press). The cause of death was not revealed.

the filmmaker himself, Eleanor Coppola She was particularly known for documentaries documenting the making of the films of her husband, Francis Ford Coppola. He won an Emmy for chronicling the 238-day production of Apocalypse Now in his documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), a true portrait of an artist in crisis that also earned him a Directors Guild of America nomination. .

These are simply pictures he took on the set of a feature film that later became a documentary that was released 12 years later. Apocalypse Now which received no less than eight Oscar nominations.

“For me, the beginning of the idea for the film was really documenting the apocalypse nowhe told Deadline in 2017.I had no idea. I shot some small art films in the early 70s, but when I bought this camera in the Philippines, I was just fascinated by the viewfinder. I really responded to that, so I made different documentaries because I’ve always loved filming.“

Eleanor Coppola He then wrote and directed his first feature film, Paris Can Wait, a novel starring Diane Lane, Alec Baldwin and Arnaud Viare, which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The second film, the drama Love Stories, starring Joan Whaley, Chris. Messina and Kathy Baker followed in 2020.

The director also recounted the troubled productionApocalypse Now In his 1995 book, Notes: Creating Apocalypse NowBefore publishing his memoirs, Notes on lifein 2008. In addition, he worked as a cinematographer and director on several documentary shorts detailing the various films of his wife and children.

Unforgettable matriarch

Born Eleanor Neal in Los Angeles on May 4, 1936, she grew up in Huntington Beach before earning a degree in applied design from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He met her in 1963 Francis Ford Coppola While working as an assistant art director on his first horror film, Dementia 13, in 1963. A few months into their relationship, Eleanor became pregnant and the couple married in Las Vegas in February 1963.

Their firstborn, Gian-Carlo, soon became a regular in his father’s films, as did their next children, Roman (born 1965) and Sofia (born 1971). After appearing in their father’s films and growing up on the set, they all gravitated towards cinema.

“I don’t know what our family has built, except that I hope we set an example of a family that encourages each other in the creative process, whatever that may be.“, Eleanor told the Associated Press in 2017.Everyone in our family has somehow chosen to follow the family business. We didn’t ask them and we didn’t expect them to do it, but they did. At one point, Sophia said, “The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.”“

Eleanor Coppola She is survived by her husband Francis, their children Sophia and Roman and three grandchildren. Their eldest son, Gian-Carlo, died in 1986, aged 22, of injuries sustained in a boating accident.