As the driving force behind a generation-spanning dynasty of film-makers, actors, writers and composers, Francis Ford Coppola has enjoyed a long and bumpy career punctuated by towering peaks of cinematic genius. His early years as a script doctor and editor for low-budget movie mogul Roger Corman culminated in a string of directing misfires, but his ambition finally paid off when he was hired to make The Godfather, pushing his own personal vision to transform Mario Puzo’s sprawling Mafia saga into an all-time American classic. Even if he had stopped making movies after the masterful 1974 sequel and extended TV mini-series, Coppola’s reputation would have been sealed.

Defining the maverick spirit of the New Hollywood brats of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Coppola’s stubborn determination to make highly personal movies within the mainstream caused massive friction with producers and financiers, almost costing him his career on several occasions. His loyalty to great actors with volatile reputations, from Marlon Brando to James Caan and Mickey Rourke, also rubbed studio bosses up the wrong way.

When Coppola’s monumental struggle to complete his troubled Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now looked set to ruin him critically and financially, many would have relished his fall. Instead, the gamble paid off. But his subsequent barmy attempt to launch his own Zoetrope studio imploded in financial disaster, and the director fell back on his family vineyard to keep him afloat during fallow periods.

Despite his erratic output over the last two decades, Coppola continues to contribute to the cinematic landscape as a producer, writer and father figure to younger directors – literally in the case of daughter Sofia, whose 2003 indie smash Lost In Translation was loosely inspired by her father’s experiences shooting a Japanese whiskey commercial. The recent Redux expansion of Apocalypse Now reminded new generations of past glories, while his long-planned sci-fi epic Megalopolis promises to bring Coppola back to mainstream acclaim. Assuming, of course, he ever completes it.