Francis Ford Coppola Immortalized in Cement Outside Chinese Theatre

HOLLYWOOD, CA - Oscar-winning writer/director/producer Francis Ford Coppola, best known for "The Godfather" film series, sank his hands and feet into cement today outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The ceremony was held as part of the 2016 Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival, which began Thursday.

"Thanks to TCM, thanks for this opportunity to be at the legendary Grauman's Chinese Theatre," he said. "We still call it that, we who knew it as (Grauman's). It represented Hollywood to us."

Coppola, 77, has earned five Academy Awards and nine nominations for screenwriting and directing and as a producer in the best picture category. He received the Academy's Irving Thal

He won best screenplay for "Patton" in 1970, "The Godfather" in 1972 and "The Godfather, Part II" in 1974, and for directing the sequel, which also won best picture.

His other nominations were for "American Graffiti," "The Conversation," "Godfather III" and "Apocalypse Now."

Coppola was born in Detroit and raised in Queens. His father Carmine was a composer-musician with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and his mother, Italia, was an Italian actress.

He shot his first 8mm film at the age of 10. Coppola studied drama at Hofstra College in New York and enrolled in the UCLA graduate film school in 1960, where he earned a master's degree.

His first credit as a director was for "Dementia 13," a 1963 Roger Corman film. "You're a Big Boy Now," his thesis film in 1967, was distributed to theaters by Warner Bros. "Finian's Rainbow" was his first mainstream effort as a director.

In 1969, Coppola founded American Zoetrope, an independent studio in San Francisco, which produced "THX-1138," George Lucas' first film. He later produced "American Graffiti," which launched Lucas' career.

Coppola earned his first Oscar in 1970, at the age of 31, for co- scripting "Patton." His career went into orbit two years later, when "The Godfather" became one of the biggest moneymakers of all time.

Coppola earned his second Oscar for screenwriting, and he was also nominated for an Academy Award for directing "The Godfather" sequel.

City News Service