Nicolas Cage a nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and of actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of "Golden Boy". He said he started
Francis Ford Coppola some new 3-D color footage and earned a writer's and director's credit for "The Bellboy and the Playgirls", also a box-office failure. Coppola was hired as an assistant by Roger Corman and his first job for Corman was to dub and re-edit a Russian science fiction film, "Nebo zovyot", which he turned into a sex-and-violence monster movie entitled "Battle Beyond the Sun", released in 1962. Impressed by Coppola's perseverance and dedication, Corman hired him as dialogue director on "Tower of London" (1962), sound man for "The Young Racers" (1963) and associate producer of "The Terror" (1963). While on location in