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Talia Shire
Talia Shire, birth name Talia Rose Coppola, was born on 25th April 1946, in Lake Success, New York State, USA. Her mother, Italia Pennino Coppola, was the matriarch of the Coppola family and known for her authentic Italian cooking, whereas her father, Carmine Coppola, was a talented flautist, pianist, composer and songwriter, who won Academy Awards and Golden Globes during his lengthy career. Both are buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery.
Talia’s family names precede themselves; her maternal grandfather, Francesco Pennino, was the famous Italian composer who emigrated from Naples. The actress’s brothers are producer and director Francis Ford Coppola and academic August Coppola, making Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola her nephew and niece.
The “Rocky” star has three children: Matthew Orlando Shire and Jason and Robert Schwartzman. Matthew was born of her first marriage to composer David Shire, whereas Jason and Robert’s father is the film producer Jack Schwartzman.
Talia and David divorced in 1980 after a decade-long marriage; in the same year, she married Jack in a clandestine civil ceremony that took place in Las Vegas. No family or friends were present at the wedding, and even Talia’s publicist only learned about it when it was official. Speaking to The Enquirer in 1980, the “Godfather” star said: “We didn’t think it was big news for anybody else,” whereas Jack joked that the couple would have had to “rent out the Los Angeles Coliseum” in order to fit in all their loved ones.
As it happens, Talia gave birth to Jason two months before her divorce from David was finalized and a few weeks before marrying Jack. When the couple met in June 1979, the actress and David were already in the midst of their divorce, whereas Jack and his wife had already separated. Shortly afterwards, they began living together in total secrecy.
Career
Although Talia will forever be remembered for her iconic roles as Connie Corleone in “The Godfather” and Adrianna Balboa in “Rocky”, her first acting credit came in 1968 with a minor part in “The Wild Racers”. Two years later, she played a nurse in “The Dunwich Horror” and Sandy in “Maxie”. In the early years of her career, Talia also did TV movies (“Foster and Laurie”) and guest-starred in “Doctors’ Hospital”.
1972 was a rememberable year for Talia as she brought Connie to life in the first instalment of “The Godfather”. Connie, born in 1925, was the only daughter of the famous on-screen Mafia don Vito Corleone; her older brothers were Sonny, Fredo, Michael, and Tom. Aged 20, she married Sonny’s friend Carlo Rizzi, but her father disapproved of the match due to Carlo’s mother being from Northern Italy, and only agreed to the marriage if they celebrated it with a traditional Sicilian ceremony.
Connie was physically abused and cheated on by Carlo; although her brothers were enraged on her behalf, Vito forbade them from interfering in the marriage so as to not go against Italian tradition. When Vito died and Michael became the new Don, he had Carlo murdered due to his participation in Sonny’s death.
“The Godfather Part II” was released two years later; set three years after the first film, Connie was still angry at her brother for having Carlo killed, and had a string of meaningless affairs to deliberately spite her older brother.
Although Connie spent much of the second film absent after arguing with Michael because he wouldn’t give her money to marry a man he disapproved of, she made peace with him at the end of the movie – Talia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Connie.
The second birthday announcement today is Talia Shire aka Adrian Balboa. Happy birthday! @TheSlyStallone #sylvesterstallone #slystallone #slystalloneshop #rocky #rockybalboa #rambo #johnrambo #taliashire #adrianbalboa pic.twitter.com/qJ9D4bKX7K
— Sly Stallone Shop (@SlyStalloneShop) April 25, 2020
The success of the epic crime films took Talia’s previously average career to new heights, as in 1976 she was cast as the main love interest in “Rocky”. Two other actresses were considered for the role of Adrianna before Talia auditioned and was selected: Carrie Snodgress, who turned the offer down due to its low salary, and Susan Sarandon, who directors thought was too pretty to play a mousy character like Adrianna.
In the first “Rocky” movie, Adrianna was a young Italian-American woman working at a small pet store in Philadelphia where Rocky Balboa would frequently buy food for his pet turtles. Despite her being quiet and awkward, Rocky took a liking to Adrianna and started a relationship with her with help from her brother, Paulie.
During the course of the movie, Adrianna moved in with Rocky after a fight with her brother, and also gave him a pet bull mastiff named Butkus. At the end, she expressed her love for the boxer after he lost a fight against Apollo Creed.
Talia’s performance as Adrianna earned her a New York Film Critics Circle Award and a National Board of Review Award, both in the Best Supporting Actress category. “Rocky III” was released three years later but set immediately afterwards. In the second movie, Rocky and Adrianna married and had a baby but slipped into a coma during labor due to excessive blood loss. The final scene, in which Rocky yells “Yo Adrian, I did it!” after winning a match, contains what many consider one of the most iconic quotes in sports film history.
Although we could discuss Talia’s central role in the remaining “Rocky” sequels, or her second reprisal of Connie in “The Godfather Part III”, the actress has had other notable projects – some of them indie – such as “I Heart Huckabees”, “Kiss the Bride”, and “Palo Alto”. As recently as 2020, she played Iola Parkes in “Working Man”, the drama film written, directed and produced by Robert Jury.
The Italian-American’s latest movie, “Megalopolis”, is currently in its post-production stages and is set to release in 2024. With a star-studded ensemble that includes Shia LaBeouf, Adam Driver, and Forest Whitaker, the upcoming film is written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and has been his passion project since the 1980s. Despite reports of the movie going over its $120 million budget and having a high staff turnover due to an unstable working environment, many cinephiles are looking forward eagerly await its release.
In her seventh decade as part of the entertainment industry, Talia has an estimated net worth of $40 million.
