Eleanor Coppola – best known as director of documentary Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, and legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s wife and collaborator – has passed away at 87.
Eleanor family released a statement to the Associated Press on Friday confirming her death. No cause of death was given.
She first met Francis in 1962 while working as an assistant art director on his feature directorial debut, the low-budget horror movie Dementia 13.
They struck up a romance, kicking off a personal and professional relationship that lasted more than six decades until her death.
Over the course of her career she directed several documentaries, often behind-the-scenes looks at the movies of her husband and their daughter Sofia Coppola.
Eleanor Coppola – best known as legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola ‘s wife and collaborator – has passed away at 87
Francis and Eleanor, who were together since meeting on the set of his directorial debut in 1962, are pictured together in 1991
Eleanor was born in Los Angeles and largely raised by a single mother after the death of her father when she was only 10 years old.
After majoring in applied design at UCLA, she began a career as an assistant art director on movies – which brought her to the Ireland set of Dementia 13.
Francis and Eleanor began dating during the making of the movie and in 1963, she discovered that she was pregnant with his baby.
He talked her out of giving the baby up for adoption, and the pair tied the knot in a Las Vegas shotgun wedding before welcoming their son Gian-Carlo.
Although she largely spent the next couple of decades raising the couple’s children Gian-Carlo, Roman and Sofia, she remained in the film world via her husband.
She accompanied him to the sets of his movies as his star rose in the early 1970s with such films as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and The Conversation.
In the mid-1970s, Eleanor was a firsthand witness to the chaotic making of her husband’s Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now.
The production in the Philippines was beset by one crisis after another, from a typhoon that destroyed the sets to the star Martin Sheen suffering a heart attack.
Eleanor directed several documentaries, often behind-the-scenes looks at the movies of her husband and their daughter Sofia Coppola; pictured with Sofia in 2017
Francis and Eleanor began dating during the making of the movie and in 1963, she discovered that she was pregnant with his baby; the pair are pictured in Vienna in 2006
Over their six-decade marriage, the couple welcomed three children together – 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 when he launched a wine empire later in life; pictured in 2013
She also made behind-the-scenes docs about her daughter’s films The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette; pictured with Francis and Sofia at the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party
Eleanor revealed that at one point, the movie was running more than $2 million over budget, an alarming amount in the mid-1970s.
Catastrophe struck when two of the people hired to build a gargantuan temple set were killed in an accident during construction.
Putting her creative mind to work, Eleanor began filming the tumultuous production for what ultimately became Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
She is one of multiple credited directors for the behind-the-scenes documentary, which was released in 1991 and became a classic of the genre, to the point it was even parodied in the smash hit comedy Tropic Thunder.
‘I never intended to make the documentary of all documentaries,’ she told CNN years later. ‘I was just trying to keep myself occupied with something to do because we were out there for so long. I just had never shot a documentary before.’
She recalled: ‘They wanted five minutes for a TV promotional or something and I thought sooner of later I could get five minutes of film and then it went on to 15 minutes. I just kept shooting but I had no idea…the evolution of myself that I saw with my camera. So, it was a surprise for both of us and a life changing experience.’
Eleanor also got a close look at the way her husband’s frame of mind suffered as the tortuous shoot of Apocalypse Now dragged on.
‘It was a journey for him up the river I always felt. He went deeper and deeper into himself and deeper and deeper and deeper into the production. It just got out of control. He didn’t have the ending. He didn’t know how to deal with it,’ she 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 movie Apocalypse Now
Eleanor also got a close look at the way her husband’s frame of mind suffered as the tortuous shoot of Apocalypse Now dragged on; he is pictured in Hearts Of Darkness
”It was a journey for him up the river I always felt,’ said Eleanor: ‘He went deeper and deeper into himself and deeper and deeper and deeper into the production’
‘I never intended to make the documentary of all documentaries,’ said Eleanor: ‘I was just trying to keep myself occupied with something to do because we were out there for so long’
Eleanor is one of multiple credited directors for the behind-the-scenes documentary, which was released in 1991 and became a classic of the genre
‘The script was evolving and the scenes were changing – it just got larger and more complex. And little by little he got out there as far as his characters. That wasn’t the intention at all at the beginning.’
After the splash made by Hearts Of Darkness, she continued in her career as a documentarian, filming the making of her husband’s 1997 movie The Rainmaker.
She also made behind-the-scenes documentaries about her daughter’s films The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, as well as her son Roman’s picture CQ.
Eleanor explored her other interests in documentaries as well, such as the 1996 short A Visit To China’s Miao Country.
In 2016, around her 80th birthday, she broke into narrative feature films by directing the comedy Paris Can Wait, starring Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane and Arnaud Viard.
In 2016, around her 80th birthday, she broke into narrative feature films by directing the comedy Paris Can Wait, starring (from left) Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane and Arnaud Viard
She kept in the same vein and followed up Paris Can Wait with the 2020 drama Love Is Love Is Love, whose ensemble cast included Chris Messina (pictured)
Eleanor is pictured at a 2017 event for Paris Can Wait with Lee Radziwill, the late younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
She kept in the same vein and followed up Paris Can Wait with the 2020 drama Love Is Love Is Love, whose ensemble 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 firstborn son Gian-Carlo was killed in a speedboating accident, leaving behind a pregnant fiancée.
She remained at her husband’s side throughout his career, not only as a filmmaker but when he launched a wine empire later in life.
A few years ago, she was asked whether her husband was different on the sets of his movies than he was while at home with his family.
‘No. I think because he spent his life as a director it’s just in his nature. It’s in his blood. He is always directing,’ Eleanor said.
‘So, when he gets home he’s directing the dinner, where we are gonna sit, what we are going to eat. I’ve adjusted to it, so now it’s really funny.’