Fred Roos Dead at 89: Longtime Francis Ford Coppola Collaborator Was a Casting Director, Producer

Fred Roos, the longtime producing and casting collaborator of Francis Ford Coppola, has died at age 89.

Roos famously found Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford, launching both actors’ respective careers, and even helped cast Carrie Fisher alongside Ford in “Star Wars.” He is credited for also boosting the careers of Kirsten Dunst, Diane Keaton, Laurence Fishburne, Frederic Forest, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Jennifer Connelly, Billy Bob Thorton, Marshall Bell, and more.

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Roos later served as the casting director for Coppola’s “The Godfather,” leading auteur Coppola to deem Roos “one of the great casting talents in the last 40 years of American movies” in a 2004 interview with the Chicago Tribune.

Roos produced follow-up film “The Godfather: Part II,” “Apocalypse Now,” and Coppola’s recent “Megalopolis,” for which he also helped cast the star-studded ensemble. In 1974, both Roos and Coppola earned two Oscar nominations for Best Picture in the same year for “The Conversation” and “The Godfather: Part II” with the sequel film winning the Best Picture title during the awards ceremony.

Coppola recently shouted out Roos in a 2023 social media post, calling the casting director and executive producer one of the “incredible members” of the “Megalopolis” production. The feature debuted at Cannes in competition for the Palme d’Or.

Coppola and Roos’ collaborations also include “One From the Heart,” “Rumble Fish,” “The Outsiders,” “The Cotton Club,” “Gardens of Stone,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” “Youth Without Youth,” “Tetro,” “Twixt,” and “Distant Vision.” Roos further served as an executive producer on “Apocalypse Now” making-of documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” that was co-directed by the late Eleanor Coppola. The film won an Emmy. Roos and Eleanor Coppola collaborated once more for her directorial debut “Paris Can Wait,” which Roos produced.

Roos additionally has produced all of Sofia Coppola’s films to date. He most recently was an executive producer on “Priscilla.”

Outside of his career in Hollywood, Roos served two tours during the Korean War. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Drew, and son and producing partner, Alexander “Sandy” Roos.

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