Francis Ford Coppola, born April 7, 1939 is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors, Coppola epitomized a group of filmmakers known as the "New Hollywood". Emerging in the early 1970s with unconventional ideas that challenged contemporary film-making, the group included Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, William Friedkin, Philip Kaufman and George Lucas. In 1970, Coppola won the Oscar for best original screenplay as co-writer, with Edmund H. North, of Patton. His directorial prominence was cemented with the release of The Godfather in 1972. The film revolutionized movie-making in the gangster genre, earning praise from both critics and the public before winning three Academy Awards -- including his second Oscar, Best Picture, and his first nomination for Best Director. Coppola followed with The Godfather Part II in 1974, which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics, it brought him three more Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture, and made him the third director, after Billy Wilder and James L. Brooks, to be honored three times for the same film.