Coppola, Francis (Ford) (1939- )

US film director and screenwriter. He directed The Godfather (1972), which became one of the biggest moneymaking films of all time, and its sequels The Godfather Part II (1974), which won seven Academy Awards, and The Godfather Part III (1990). His other films include the influential Apocalypse Now (1979) and Rumblefish (1983).

After working on horror ‘B-movies’, his first directorial success was Finian's Rainbow (1968). His screenplay for Patton (1969) won an Academy Award. A film-maker of wide-ranging ambition, he has also directed The Conversation (1972), One from the Heart (1982), The Outsiders (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Gardens of Stone (1987), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Jack (1996), and The Rainmaker (1997), based on John Grisham's novel.