Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an Italian-American film director, producer and screenwriter. Away from showbusiness, Coppola is also a vintner, magazine publisher and hotelier. He is a graduate of Hofstra University where he studied theatre. He earned an M.F.A. in film directing from the UCLA Film School. He is most renowned for directing the Godfather films, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.

Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family of Italian ancestry (his grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata). He received his middle name in honor of Henry Ford and because he was born at the Henry Ford Hospital. Coppola is son of Italia (née Pennino) and arranger/composer Carmine Coppola, who was the first flautist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He was the second of three children (his sister is actress Talia Shire). Two years later, Carmine became the first flautist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the family moved to New York City, finding a home in Woodside, Queens, where Francis spent the remainder of his childhood.

Coppola had polio as a boy, leaving him bedridden for large periods of his childhood, and allowing him to indulge his imagination with homemade puppet theater productions. Using his father's 8 mm movie camera, he began making movies when he was 10. He studied theatre at Hofstra University and graduated from the University in 1960, prior to earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in film direction from UCLA Film School. There, he made numerous short films. While in UCLA's Film Department, Francis met Jim Morrison, whose music was used later in Apocalypse Now.