Carmine Coppola | |
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| Born | Carmine Valentino Coppola (1910-06-11)June 11, 1910 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 26, 1991(1991-04-26) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Los Angeles |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | [1] |
| Children | |
| Family | Coppola family |
| Musical career | |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1949–1991 |
Musical artist | |
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Carmine Valentino Coppola (Italian:[ˈkarmineˈkɔppola]; June 11, 1910 – April 26, 1991) was an American composer, flautist, pianist, and songwriter who contributed original music to the filmsThe Godfather,The Godfather Part II,Apocalypse Now,The Outsiders,The Black Stallion, andThe Godfather Part III. He is the father of film directorFrancis Ford Coppola.[2] In the course of his career, he won both theAcademy Award for Best Original Score and theGolden Globe Award for Best Original Score, in addition to nominations for theBAFTA Award for Best Original Music andGrammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Coppola was born inNew York City, the son of Maria (née Zasa) and Agostino Coppola, who came to the United States fromBernalda,Basilicata.[3] His brother was opera conductor and composerAnton Coppola. He was the father ofAugust Coppola,Francis Ford Coppola[2] andTalia Shire, and grandfather ofNicolas Cage,Sofia Coppola,Roman Coppola,Jason Schwartzman,Robert Schwartzman, and the lateGian-Carlo Coppola.
Coppola died inNorthridge, California, at the age of 80 in 1991. His wife,Italia, died in 2004 in Los Angeles. According to Francis, his father suffered from a stroke on the night of the Academy Awards, due to the shock of not winning an award for "Best Original Song".[4] Both Coppola and his wife are buried atSan Fernando Mission Cemetery.[5]
Coppola played theflute. He studied atJuilliard, later at theManhattan School of Music and privately withJoseph Schillinger. During the 1940s, Coppola worked underArturo Toscanini with theNBC 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 onBroadway and elsewhere, working with his son, filmmakerFrancis Ford Coppola, on additional music for hisFinian's Rainbow.[6]
Carmine contributed to the music performed in the wedding scene inThe Godfather (1972). Later, his son called on him to compose additional music for the score ofThe Godfather Part II (1974), 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 youngVito Corleone flashback segments. Principal score composerNino Rota and Carmine together wonOscars for Best Score for the film.[2][7] He also composed most of the score forThe Godfather Part III (1990).[2] He made cameo appearances in all threeGodfather films as a conductor.
Carmine and Francis together scoredApocalypse Now (1979), for which they won aGolden Globe Award for best original score.[7][8] He also composed a three-and-a-half-hour score for US showings ofKevin Brownlow's reconstruction ofAbel Gance's 1927 epicNapoléon.[9][10] Carmine composed the music forThe Black Stallion (1979), on which Francis was executive producer, and four other films directed by his son in the 1980s. In his audio commentary onThe Godfather Part III DVD, Francis said that his father missed a cue during the shooting of that film's opening wedding reception—something he never did in his prime. At that point, Francis realized that his father had little time left. As it turned out, Carmine died less than four months afterPart III premiered,[11] of astroke.[12]
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Battle Beyond the Sun | English-language reedit ofNebo Zovyot Composed withYuliy Meitus &Vyacheslav Mescherin |
| 1962 | Tonight for Sure | — |
| 1969 | The Rain People | Composed withRonald Stein |
| 1974 | The Godfather Part II | Composed withNino Rota |
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | Composed with Francis Ford Coppola Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score |
| 1980 | Napoléon | Reedit of 1927 film supervised by Coppola |
| 1983 | The Outsiders | — |
| 1987 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Television series Episode: "Rip Van Winkle" |
| Gardens of Stone | — | |
| 1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Composed withJoe Jackson |
| 1989 | New York Stories | Segment: "Life Without Zoe" |
| 1990 | The Godfather Part III | Nominated-Academy Award for Best Original Song Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song |
| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Green Berets | John Wayne Ray Kellogg | As flautist Score composed byMiklós Rózsa |
| 1971 | THX 1138 | George Lucas | As flautist & orchestrator Score composed byLalo Schifrin |
| 1972 | The People | John Korty | Television film |
| 1977 | Mustang: The House That Joe Built | Robert Guralnick | Documentary film |
| 1979 | The Black Stallion | Carroll Ballard | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score |
| 1989 | Blood Red | Peter Masterson | — |
Media related toCarmine Coppola at Wikimedia Commons