Director and wife of Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola passes away

Emmy award-winning director and wife of director Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola, died on Friday at her home in Rutherford, California. She was 87.

The Coppola family has confirmed her demise.

Born Eleanor Jessie Neil in Los Angeles on May 4, 1936, she completed her graduation from UCLA in applied design. She met her husband Coppola during the production of Dementia 13, a horror film marking Coppola's directorial debut, where she worked as an assistant art director. Francis and Eleanor married in 1963 upon discovering they were pregnant with their first child Gian-Carlo, who passed away at 1986 at the age of 22 succumbing to injuries in a speed-boating accident. The couple had two more children, director Sofia and writer and producer Roman Coppola.

While she made small art films during the 70s, Eleanor's break came with the Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991), a documentary on the struggles the team of Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, went through during the production. The crew was faced with several bottlenecks ranging from actors' poor health to bad weather while filming the story based on the Vietnam war.

The documentary went on to win several awards including two Emmys under the Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Directing and Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Picture Editing categories.

Apart from her husband Francis, children Sofia and Roman, Eleanor is survived by three granchildren.