Carmine Coppola

Carmine Coppola (Born in New York City, June 11, 1910. Died in Northbridge, California in April 26, 1991) was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning, as well as BAFTA Award-nominated, American composer, editor, musical director, and songwriter. Coppola was a composer and conductor who contributed to many of the musical scores in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, and Apocalypse Now directed by his son Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola is also the father of Talia Shire and grandfather of Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola.

His wife, Italia Coppola, died in 2004 in Los Angeles.


Coppola was born in New York City, the son of Marie (n?e Zasa) and Agostino Coppola. He was the father of August Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola and Talia Shire and grandfather of Nicolas Cage, Sofia Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman. His wife, Italia Coppola, died in 2004 in Los Angeles. Coppola died in Northridge, California at the age of 80. Upon his death, Coppola's grandson Robert Schwartzman changed his last name to 'Carmine' in his grandfather's honor.


Coppola played the flute. He studied at Juilliard and later at the Manhattan School of Music. During the 1940s, Coppola worked under Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Then in 1951, Coppola left the Orchestra to pursue his dream of composing music. During that time he mostly worked as an orchestra conductor on Broadway and elsewhere, working with his son, legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, on additional music for his Finian's Rainbow. Later, his son called him to provide additional music for The Godfather Part II, in which he and his father received an in-movie tribute with the characters Agostino and Carmine Coppola, who appear in a deleted scene from the young Vito Corleone flashback segments. Together with Nino Rota, Carmine composed music for The Godfather, and for The Godfather Part II, for which they won Oscars for Best Score. Carmine then scored Francis' Apocalypse Now, for which he won a Golden Globe award for best original score. He also composed three and a half hour score for Francis' 1981 reconstruction of Abel Gance's 1921 epic Napoleon.