Francis Ford Coppola’s wife dies at the age of 87

American director Eleanor Coppola, who was married to Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola (85) for more than 60 years, died on Friday in Rutherford, northern California, the family announced. The California native was 87 years old.

The family was close to him, they said. He is the one Mother of director Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”) and filmmaker Roman Coppola. The couple’s first son, Gian Carlo, died in a boating accident in 1986 at the age of 22. As a young arts and crafts student, he met Coppola in 1962 while filming his first film, “Dementia 13,” and they married a year later.

Director of international successes such as “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” trilogy. he often accompanied him to filming locations, for example in the jungles of the Philippines for the war drama “Apocalypse Now” (1979). Eleanor Coppola captured the dramatic drama with lead actors Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in her documentary “Journey into the Heart of Darkness”.

At the age of 80, the matriarch of the film dynasty made her first film, for which she also wrote the script. Alec Baldwin and Diane Lane starred in the romantic road movie “Paris Can Wait” (2016). The drama “Love Is Love Is Love” followed in 2020. (dpa)