Famous American director of Italian origins, Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 7, 1939. He spent his childhood in New York with his father, the composer and musician Carmine Coppola, and his mother, the actress Italia Pennino . As a child, Coppola became ill and spent much time animating puppets: it was in this difficult period of his life that he fell in love with theater and cinema. He made few amatorial films with an 8mm camera, too.

He graduated in dramaturgy and later he specialized in cinematography.

During the sixties he wrote screenplays for several low-budget films and, in 1970, wrote the screenplay for "Patton", the film that made him win his first Oscar. His second successful film was "You're a Big Boy Now", a graduate work at UCLA. In 1971, Coppola directed the film that made him famous: "The Godfather", a film that won four Oscars, while the sequel, "The Godfather - Part II", won six of them.

In 1979 his production company, founded with his colleague George Lucas, was nearly broke due to excessive production costs for the masterpiece "Apocalypse Now", that's why he was persuaded to direct "The Godfather - Part III", which however, was not acclaimed as the first two. In recent years he has continued to direct several films, winning several awards.