Emmy-winning filmmaker Eleanor Coppola passes away at 87

Eleanor Coppola, an Emmy-winning director, artist, and author, passed away at her Rutherford, California home on Friday (April 12), her family confirmed in a statement. She was 87 years old.

Coppola, renowned as a documentary filmmaker, received an Emmy in 1992 for "Hearts of Darkness," a film that explored the notoriously difficult production of her husband Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". She also directed the romantic comedies "Paris Can Wait" (2016) and "Love Is Love Is Love" (2020).

Her visual art, which includes photography, drawings, and conceptual works, has been showcased in numerous galleries and museums around the world, with a retrospective of her art displayed at the Sonoma Valley art museum in 2014.

Beyond her personal artistic achievements, Coppola is also celebrated as the matriarch of a prominent filmmaking family. Alongside her husband Francis, she raised three children who pursued careers in the film industry. Francis Ford Coppola is most renowned for his 1972 film "The Godfather," a defining piece of the American gangster genre.

Coppola passed away as her husband was getting ready to debut his long-awaited, self-funded epic, "Metropolis," which is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

She is survived by her husband, Francis Ford Coppola; her son Roman, his wife Jen, and their children Pascale, Marcello, and Alessandro; her daughter Sofia, her husband Thomas, and their children Romy and Cosima; her granddaughter Gia, her husband Honor, and their child Beaumont; as well as her brother William Neil and his wife Lisa.

According to her family, Coppola had just finished writing her third memoir. In the manuscript, she wrote:

"I appreciate how my unexpected life has stretched and pulled me in so many extraordinary ways and taken me in a multitude of directions beyond my wildest imaginings."