SOFIA COPPOLA Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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SOFIA COPPOLA

Name: Sofia Carmina Coppola                                                             
Born: 14 May 1971 New York City, New York, U.S.                                         
                                                                                       
Sofia Carmina Coppola (born May 14, 1971) is an American film director, actress,       
producer and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is the first American woman       
and third woman in history to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing,         
the other two women being Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion.                           
                                                                                       
Coppola is the daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola, granddaughter of the         
late composer Carmine Coppola, sister of Roman Coppola and the late Gian-Carlo         
Coppola, niece of Talia Shire and a cousin of Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman           
and Robert Carmine.                                                                     
                                                                                       
She attended Mills College and the California Institute of the Arts. After             
graduating, Coppola started a clothing line called Milkfed that is sold                 
exclusively in Japan.                                                                   
                                                                                       
Coppola began her career as an infant making several background appearances in         
her father's films. The most well-known of these early roles is her appearance         
in The Godfather as the baby boy in the christening scene. She is also featured         
in her father's film The Outsiders in a scene where Matt Dillon, C. Thomas             
Howell, and Ralph Macchio meet in a Dairy Queen before the famous burning church       
scene.                                                                                 
                                                                                       
Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film she performed in that was not associated       
with her father. However, it often goes unnoticed due to her stage-name "Domino"       
which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous.                     
                                                                                       
In 1989 a short film entitled Life Without Zoe was released as part of a 3-part         
anthology film, New York Stories. It was written by Sofia Coppola and her father,       
Francis Ford Coppola (who also directed the film).                                     
                                                                                       
Her best known role is Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), a role           
for which she was cast at the last minute after Winona Ryder fell ill. This             
heavily criticized performance (for which she received the award of "Worst New         
Star" in the 1990 Golden Raspberry Awards) practically ended her acting career,         
save for appearances in the independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland (1992) and       
in the background of films by her friends and family. In 1999, she appeared as a       
handmaiden in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999). She         
has since been quoted as saying she wasn't hurt by the criticism from her role         
in The Godfather Part III because she never especially wanted an acting career.         
                                                                                       
She can also be seen in several music videos from the 1990s, appearing briefly         
in Madonna's video for Deeper and Deeper in 1992 and went on to play a gymnast         
in the 1997 video for "Elektrobank" by the Chemical Brothers, which was directed       
by her future husband Spike Jonze.                                                     
                                                                                       
Coppola is now better known as a successful film director. Her first three films       
were Lick the Star (1998), The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Lost in Translation (2003).   
Lost in Translation won the Academy Award for original screenplay and three             
Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture. With her Oscar nomination for Best         
Director (for Lost in Translation), Coppola became the first American woman and         
third woman to receive an Oscar nomination for film direction. Her win for best         
original screenplay made her a third-generation Oscar winner. In 2004, Coppola         
was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.                   
                                                                                       
Coppola's most recent film is the biopic Marie Antoinette, adapted from the             
biography by British historian Lady Antonia Fraser. Kirsten Dunst plays the             
title character who marries King Louis XVI, played by Jason Schwartzman, Coppola's     
cousin. It débuted at the Cannes Film Festival where, despite boos in the             
audience, it received a standing ovation. Critics were divided.                         
                                                                                       
Coppola has often been lauded as a pop culture icon within the indie music/film         
communities, in Paris and Tokyo especially. Her fashion sense was always               
apparent, and as a child she stayed in the wardrobe department of her father's         
films. Later, in high school, she would intern with Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. In       
2002 fashion designer Marc Jacobs handpicked the actress/director to be the face       
of his house's fragrance. The campaign involved photographs of the Academy Award       
winner shot by photographer Juergen Teller in his chic signature grainy style.         
                                                                                       
In the mid-1990s, she and best friend Zoe Cassavetes helmed the short-lived             
series Hi Octane on Comedy Central. The show was a virtual who's-who of                 
underground music, with frequent guests like Donovan Leitch, Mike Watt, Thurston       
Moore, Beck, and model-actress Jenny Shimizu (whose contribution to the show was       
educating viewers on the proper way to repair a transmission on a vehicle).             
Coppola has distinct tastes in indie music and style, which came together in a         
culturally controversial way in her soundtrack choices for Marie Antoinette.           
                                                                                       
The '90s proved to be an extremely productive time in Coppola's life. At the           
beginning of the decade, she was often featured in girl-centric magazines like         
Seventeen and YM. In 1998 she co-founded the clothing line Milkfed in Japan with       
friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. The end of       
the decade marked her directorial debut.