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Italia Pennino Coppola, 91; Mother of Director, Actress

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From a Times Staff Writer

Italia Pennino Coppola, the mother of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, has died at age 91.

Coppola, who had been ill for some time, died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, said Kathleen Talbert, publicist for the director.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Coppola was the daughter of a composer of popular Italian songs who also was a motion picture theater owner.

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She appeared in two of her son’s films, “The Godfather Part II” and “One From the Heart,” and was the author of a cookbook, “Mama Coppola’s Pasta Book.”

Her husband, flutist Carmine Coppola, who was an Academy Award-winning Hollywood composer and conductor, died in 1991.

In addition to her son and daughter, Coppola is survived by another son, August Floyd Coppola; eight grandchildren, including actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola; and three great-grandchildren.

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