Background
August Coppola was the son of composer and flutist Carmine Coppola (1910-1991) and Italia Coppola (1912-2004), a lyricist and matriarch of the Coppola family.
artist educator Creative arts school dean
August Coppola was the son of composer and flutist Carmine Coppola (1910-1991) and Italia Coppola (1912-2004), a lyricist and matriarch of the Coppola family.
Bachelor, University of California at Los Angeles, 1955; Master of Arts, Hofstra U., 1956; Doctor of Philosophy, Occidental College, 1960.
He is the father of actor Nicolas Cage. Coppola received his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his graduate degree at Hofstra University, where his thesis Ernest Hemingway: The Problem of In Our Time was published in 1956. Coppola earned his doctorate at Occidental College in 1960.
He taught comparative literature at Cal State Long Beach in the 1960s and '70s and served as a trustee of the California State University system before moving to San Francisco in 1984. He then served as Dean of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University. He was an executive at his brother's American Zoetrope film studio, where he was involved in the revival of Abel Gance's 1927 silent film Napoléon.
Also, Coppola served as chairman and CEO of Education First!, an organization seeking Hollywood studio support of educational programs. Coppola also worked as an advocate for art appreciation among the visually impaired. He is credited as being the creator of the Tactile Dome, a feature at the San Francisco Exploratorium museum, which opened to the public on September 9, 1971.
The Dome is a lightless maze that requires visitors to pass through using only their sense of touch. Coppola was the author of the romantic novel The Intimacy (1978), and was working on a second novel, The Nymbus, while living in Savannah, Georgia. August Coppola's final home was in Los Angeles, where he died of a heart attack on October 27, 2009 at age 75.
The 150-seat August Coppola Theater on the San Francisco State campus is named in his honor. Francis Ford Coppola dedicated his 1983 film Rumble Fish to him. In The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), August Coppola's name is mentioned at the very end of credits.
Trustee California State University System, Long Beach., 1981-1984. Chairman San Francisco Film and Video Commission, since 1990. Board directors Nueva Learning Center, since 1986.
Member of advisory board The Lab, since 1985, San Francisco Toy Museum, since 1987, Young Audiences, since 1988. Premier Education Advocacy. Member San Francisco International Film Festival (board directors since 1984).
Children: Marc Andre, ChristopherRemy, Nicolas.