Francis Ford Coppola is Recovering After Heart Surgery

Francis Ford Coppola, 86, is currently in Italy for a screening of his film “Megalopolis” at the Magna Graecia Film Festival when he suffered a heart arrhythmia before a scheduled procedure, the Mirror reported on August 5.

The doctors kept their eyes on him before deeming him well enough to undergo his heart surgery.

“Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure with acclaimed Dr. Andrea Natale, his doctor of over 30 years, and is resting nicely. All is well, and he appreciates everyone’s concern,” a source told People.

Coppola is Living Life to the Fullest

Coppola was previously in San Francisco for the showing of “Megalopolis” on August 1, where he expounded on life and death in a presentation to the audience after the film.

“I’m 85. 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,'” he told the audience (via SF Gate).

The longtime filmmaker continued, “I got to see my daughter win an Oscar. I got to see my father win an Oscar. 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,” Coppola mused.

Coppola is a Polio Survivor

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As reported by the American Film Institute, Coppola contracted polio at the age of nine, which debilitated him for a year.

“People don’t understand that polio is a fever that just hits you for one night. You only are sick for one night. The terrible effects of polio, like being unable to breathe so you have to be in an iron lung, or not being able to walk or be totally paralyzed, is the result of the damage of that one night of the infection,” he told Deadline in 2024.

Coppola recalled trying to get out of bed at the hospital but found that he was unable to stand. “I couldn’t get up. And I stayed in that ward for about 10 days before, finally, my parents were able to take me home,” he said.

After a doctor told him he would be wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life, Coppola’s father refused to give up and found a course of treatment for him.

With some gentle exercises founded by a nurse named Sister Kenny, Coppola eventually regained use of his limbs. “I’m totally grateful and know the fact that I even can walk today is due to the Sister Kenny system, which was a revolutionary thought at the time,” the five-time Oscar winner stated.