| Carmine Coppola | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 11, 1910 New York City, New York |
| Died | April 26, 1991 (aged 80) Northridge, California |
| Resting place | San Fernando Mission Cemetery |
| Spouse | Italia Coppola |
| Children | Francis Ford Coppola August Coppola Talia Shire |
Carmine Coppola (June 11, 1910 – April 26, 1991) was an American composer, flautist, 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.
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Coppola was born in New York City, the son of Marie (née Zasa) and Agostino Coppola. His brother is Maestro Anton 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, later at the Manhattan School of Music and privately with Joseph Schillinger. 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; they won Oscars for Best Score for the latter. He also composed the score for The Godfather Part III. He made cameo appearances in all three Godfather films as a conductor. 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 1927 epic Napoléon.
In his audio commentary on The Godfather Part III DVD, Francis said that he knew his father was close to death when he missed a cue—something he never did in his prime. As it turned out, Coppola died less than four months after Part III premiered.[1]
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