FRED Roos, the Oscar winning producer of films like The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now, has died.
The Hollywood legend, who often worked closely with director Francis Ford Coppola, was 89.
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Fred started his career as a casting director for classic films including American Graffiti.
He is credited with helping discover acting legends like Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Carrie Fisher, and Richard Dreyfuss, according to Variety.
After forming a bond with Francis, Fred would partner with the director on several projects.
He would also serve another important role for the movie maker – babysitter to a young Sofia Coppola.
Most recently, Fred served as casting director and executive producer on Francis’s upcoming film Megalopolis, which premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival.
Outside of his work with the acclaimed filmmaker, Fred served as a casting consultant on the first Star Wars film.
At the time, Fred convinced George Lucas to let a young actor who happened to be doing some cabinetry work for him audition for the space opera, Variety reports.
That actor was Harrison Ford.
“I had already brought him to George’s attention in American Graffiti,” Fred told Entertainment Weekly about Harrison. “Even though he was terrific, it was all night shooting and he’d only worked maybe 10 days on the whole movie. George hadn’t really gotten to know him.”
Fred died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, a publicist announced.
The ‘Godfather’ cast reunite 45 years after the movie was released
He is survived by his wife, Nancy Drew, and son and producing partner, Alexander “Sandy” Roos.
Fred’s passing comes on the heels of another Coppola loss.
Oscar-winning film director Roger Corman died last week at the age of 98.
The cult classic creator hired such aspiring filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese.
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Roger was an influential figure in independent cinema and directed the 1960 classic The Little Shop of Horrors.
“He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” His daughter Catherine Corman said in a statement.
“When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that,'” she added.
ROGER’S LEGACY
The roots of Hollywood’s golden age in the 1970s can be found in Roger’s films.
Actor Jack made his film debut as the title character in a 1958 Corman quickie, The Cry Baby Killer, and stayed with the company for biker, horror and action films, writing and producing some of them.
Other actors whose careers began in Corman movies included Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn.
Peter Fonda’s appearance in The Wild Angels was a precursor to his own landmark biker movie, Easy Rider, co-starring Nicholson and fellow Corman alumnus Dennis Hopper.
In 2009, Corman received an honorary Academy Award.
“There are many constraints connected with working on a low budget, but at the same time there are certain opportunities,” Corman said in a 2007 documentary about Val Lewton, the 1940s director of Cat People and other underground classics.
“You can gamble a little bit more. You can experiment. You have to find a more creative way to solve a problem or to present a concept,” he said.
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