.jpg)
22 hours ago
2
Nicolas Cage Reflects on Having 3 Kids With 3 Different Women
The mantra of The Godfather was "never go against the family."
Luckily that wasn't a problem for Francis Ford Coppola's son Roman Coppola and daughter Sofia Coppola, who followed their Oscar-winning father into filmmaking, as did Francis' granddaughter Gia Coppola.
And the 85-year-old couldn't have scripted it any better.
In addition to always bringing his wife Eleanor Coppola and their kids with him on location, the winemaker also invited relatives to have what he called a "creative summer" every year at his Napa Valley estate.
"We used to do one-act plays or write songs," Francis—who reassured fans Aug. 5 that his trip to a hospital in Rome was for a routine procedure—told People in April 2025, "and that's what I think bred this appetite for artistic creation among all the kids."
As Sofia, now 54, admitted to Interview in 2000, "It's hard to be around my dad and not be curious about filmmaking, because he thinks it’s the ultimate medium."
Not that she had to join the family business, but it called to her all the same.
"I didn't feel much pressure at all and developed my own voice pretty early on," the Lost in Translation director told The Talks in 2011. "Of course I am proud of my dad and where I come from, but I do have my own way of working, my own style."
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Gia, who directed 2024's The Last Showgirl, said that they're still basically putting on those summer plays in Napa, only "now with actual gear."
"We're a very bohemian family that fosters creativity," she told The Times, "and so it doesn’t feel, like, 'industry' in any way."
Meanwhile, acting called to Francis' nephews Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman.
"I can't explain it," Jason, whose mother is Francis' younger sister Talia Shire, said in 2014 on Overheard With Evan Smith. "Maybe it's a thing, if it is around you, families are involved in one trade…I was just so bad at math and things like that."
And there's even more artistry where that came from. Like the best Coppola films, enjoy the sprawling epic that is this guide to their family:
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939, the second of Carmine Coppola and Italia Coppola's three children. (Carmine later composed music for his son's films, winning an Oscar for the score of The Godfather Part II).
Eleanor Coppola (née Neil)—the art director on Francis' first film, Dementia 13—was pregnant with their first child when they tied the knot in February 1963.
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Their son Gian-Carlo Coppola was born that September, followed by son Roman Coppola in April 1964 and daughter Sofia Coppola in May 1971.
Francis won his first Academy Award for writing the 1970 war epic Patton, then focused on his own productions to heady success, acquiring four more Oscars for directing and producing Best Picture winners The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.
While Eleanor hit pause on her own aspirations to raise her family, her career as a writer and Emmy-winning documentarian—for 1991's Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, about the famously tortured production of her husband's Apocalypse Now—flourished later in life.
After her death in 2024 at the age of 87, Sofia shared with the New York Times what Eleanor told her when she became a mom in 2006: "Get a great babysitter, so you can do your work and not feel guilty."
Rodin Eckenroth/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Sofia Coppola
Sofia was admittedly "self-conscious in front of the camera," as she told Interview in 200. So, she settled behind it and never looked back, winning the Best Original Screenplay winner for 2004's Lost in Translation and making her own name as a filmmaker, designer and style icon.
Sofia was married to Spike Jonze from 1999 until 2003. Then, she and Phoenix singer Thomas Mars welcomed daughters Romy Mars in November 2006 and Cosima Mars in May 2010 before tying the knot in Italy in 2011.
Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images
Romy provoked a rare personal comment from her super-private mom in 2023 after she posted a TikTok in which she lamented being grounded for trying to charter a helicopter on her dad's dime to see a friend.
Sofia told The Hollywood Reporter that making a video was a constructive way for Romy to rebel.
"But people discussing my parenting publicly," she added, "is not what I would've hoped for."
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Gian-Carlo Coppola
Gian-Carlo (pictured at right) appeared poised to start learning the family trade, having been credited as an associate producer on 1983's The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. However, he was killed in a speedboat crash in September 1986 at the age of 22.
When he died, he was expecting a baby with his costume designer fiancée Jacqui de La Fontaine. Their daughter Gia Coppola was born in January 1987.
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for LACMA
Gia Coppola
Despite growing up close to her late father's side of the family, Gia had no intention of making movies—she studied photography at Bard College—until the stars aligned and she agreed to direct an adaptation of James Franco's 2010 book Palo Alto.
"My family was obviously very supportive," she told The Guardian in 2014, "but they also wanted me to do this on my own and weren’t being intrusive about it."
Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images
On the personal front, Gia married artist Honor Titus in March 2023 and they welcomed son Beaumount— Francis' first great-grandchild—a month later.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Roman Coppola
Roman got his first producing credit at 18 on Rumble Fish and has been in the family business ever since.
In addition to his own directing work, he has collaborated on most of Wes Anderson's films, sharing a Best Original Screenplay nomination in 2013 for Moonrise Kingdom.
In 2007, he and Sofia took ownership of American Zoetrope, the production company their father cofounded with George Lucas.
Roman shares sons Alessandro and Marcello, as well as daughter Pascal, with wife Jennifer Furches.
"I’d like my kids to have the experiences I had as a kid, being on my dad’s movie sets,” Roman told the New Yorker in 2020. "Like, ‘Oh, they’re doing the napalm drop today, so I’m going to skip school,’ which in retrospect was kind of remarkable."
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Nicolas Cage
Francis' older brother August Coppola, a professor of comparative literature, had sons Marc Coppola, Christopher Coppola and Nicolas Coppola with his first wife, dancer-choreographer Joy Vogelsang.
Their youngest first started acting as a Coppola before changing his name to Nicolas Cage.
His intent was to prove "that I had something, and it wasn’t simply because I was born into a Coppola family," the Oscar winner explained to GQ in 2022. "It was because I thought I had a unique way of feeling things and looking at things."
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
The prolific actor welcomed son Weston Coppola Cage with then-girlfriend Christina Fulton in 1990. After marriages to Patricia Arquette and Lisa-Marie Presley ended in divorce, he had son Kal-El with third wife Alice Kim in 2005.
They divorced in 2016 and then his 2019 marriage to Erika Koike ended in an annulment after just several days.
Nicolas married Riko Shibata in 2021 and their daughter August, named after his late dad, was born the following year.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Talia Shire
Francis' younger sister Talia Coppola, born in 1946, started acting under her maiden name, becoming Talia Shire after marrying composer David Shire in 1970.
The Rocky actress was pregnant with son Matthew Shire when she attended the 1975 Oscars as a Best Supporting Actress nominee for The Godfather Part II and he was born that September.
Two weeks after her divorce from David was finalized, she married producer Jack Schwartzman in August 1980—two months after their son Jason Schwartzman.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
They welcomed son Robert Schwartzman in 1982 and Talia also considers her step-kids, cinematographer John Schwartzman and set designer Stephanie Schwartzman from Jack's first marriage, to be part of her brood.
Jack died of pancreatic cancer in 1994. He was 61.
Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images
Matthew Shire
Matthew married Kate Gersten (who wrote the screenplay for Gia's latest feature, The Last Showgirl) in 2016, two years after they met in the writers room of the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, cocreated by Roman and Jason.
Like the rest of Matthew's family, they are extremely private about their children—but they do have two sons.
Michael Buckner/WWD via Getty Images
Jason Schwartzman
Jason made his acting debut at 17 in 1998's Rushmore and he never stopped.
He admitted to the Independent in 2019 that he never "felt bold enough" to assume he'd have a career in Hollywood because of his roots, adding, "I didn’t think that I was going to get to be a part of movies, truly.”
One thing he was 100-percent sure about: His love for wife Brady Cunningham, the artist mother of his two daughters and son.
Jon Kopaloff/WireImage
Robert Schwartzman
Robert didn't plan on an acting career, but YA-classic status became his after he scored the role of Mia's admirer Michael in The Princess Diaries. (While Michael's absence from the sequel was attributed to him being on tour with his band, Robert really was on tour with his band Rooney.)
He did grow up wanting to make movies and has directed several, starting with 2016's Dreamland.
Robert married photographer Zoey Grossman in 2017 and she shared in February 2022 that they had welcomed twin sons Lennox and Nino.
English (US)