First Films by Famous Directors: Francis Ford Coppola

Before the mega-budgets and A-list talent, some of the biggest directors in Hollywood started out making little films with friends and family. Others made student films. But however the filmmaker started, these are the movies that launched their careers.

If anyone embodies the Movie Brats that emerged to virtually take over Hollywood in the 1970s, it's Francis Ford Coppola. Although older than most of the other directors to emerge from that generation, in ways he's the one who started it all.

Francis Ford Coppola

Born on April 7, 1939, Francis Coppola was raised in suburban Long Island, New York. Like many of the filmmakers on this list, Coppola had a sickly childhood. He contracted polio in his youth and was frequently bedridden for long periods.

At age 10 Coppola began making movies with his father's 8mm movie camera and created stories with a homemade puppet theater. After high school, he studies theater at Hofstra University, then earned an MFA in film direction from UCLA's Film School.

Coppola, like many other filmmakers got his start working for Roger Corman making low-budget exploitation movies. Working under the pseudonym, Thomas Colchart, Coppola re-edited and earned a co-director credit for Nebo Zovyot (1960) a Russian science-fiction film that Roger Corman had bought the U.S. rights to. Coppola worked on another couple projects like this before Corman gave him the reins to direct his breakout film - Dementia 13.

Dementia 13 was a typical Corman production. Coppola was helping Corman with another film, The Young Racers, when Coppola suggested they could use the same location to make another movie. Corman, always eager to save a buck, agreed that Coppola could make a movie using the same sets and actors as The Young Racers as long as the young director worked around the shooting schedule of Racers. Coppola agreed and Dementia 13 was born.

A combination of horror and mystery Dementia 13 was limited by budget and time, but the movie shows off Coppola's skills with story and visuals. It's still a bit crude, but surprisingly effective.

To see Dementia 13 for yourself click HERE.

Coppola went on to direct You're a Big Boy Now, which led to Warners giving him the opportunity to direct Finian's Rainbow with an aging Fred Astaire. It was on this film that Coppola saw a short, lanky film school student observing his production as part of a film scholarship. Coppola confronted the young man, wondering what he was doing on his set. However, the confrontation ended in a friendly manner and the two quickly became friends. The student was George Lucas.

Three years later Coppola was allowed to direct a novel developed at Paramount - The Godfather . The success of The Godfather cracked open the Hollywood establishment for an entire generation of film school graduates as the studios attempted to recreate the enormous financial success of The Godfather. The once-closed shop that was Hollywood was opened, and through the doors came Lucas, Scorsese, John Milius, and a whole host of film school graduates.

Notable Films by Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather (1972)

The Conversation (1974)

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Apocalypse Now (1979)