Francis Ford Coppola is sharing a health update after undergoing a heart procedure in Rome.
“Da Dada (what my kids call me) is fine, taking an opportunity while in Rome to do the update of my 30 year old afib procedure with its inventor, a great Italian doctor – Dr. Andrea Natale,” the Oscar-winning director, 86, shared in an Instagram post late Tuesday, August 5. “I am well!”
Earlier Tuesday, Coppola’s representative disputed local media reports in Italy that the Godfather filmmaker was admitted to Policlinico Tor Vergata, a hospital in Rome, after experiencing mild cardiac arrhythmia.
“Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure with acclaimed Dr. Andrea Natale, his doctor of over 30 years, and is resting nicely,” the director’s representative told The Guardian, adding that “all is well.”
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The rep said the reports were “not true” and, “There was not an emergency. He went to the hospital in a car.”
Coppola recently wrapped a six-city screening tour in support of his latest movie, Megalopolis, with the final date taking place Friday, August 1, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
During a discussion following the screening, Coppola talked about his legacy and the death of his wife, Eleanor Coppola, who died in April 2024.
“I’m 85,” he said, per SFGate. “I lost my wife a year ago, around this time. But my attitude for death is that I always lived my life so that when I was at the moment approaching death, I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this and I wish I had done that.’ Instead, I say to myself, ‘I got to do this.’”
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“I got to see my daughter win an Oscar. I got to see my father win an Oscar,” he continued, referring to daughter Sofia Coppola, a film director in her own right, and father Carmine Coppola, a composer who worked on many of his son’s films.
Coppola added, “I’m going to be so busy saying all the things I got to do that when I die, I’m not going to notice it. When I die, I’m not going to notice it. You know how your electric toothbrush just shuts off when you least expect it? That’s what death is like.”
