What You Don't Know About Nicolas Cage's Impressive Family Tree
Jessica Wilkins If you're struggling to think of another famous Cage in Hollywood, that's because there isn't. Nicolas' real last name isn't Cage, but Coppola (via Biography). The Coppola family goes way back in Hollywood. The family patriarch, Carmine Coppola, was an Oscar-winning composer who scored a number of movies including The Godfather, The Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now (via NY Times), all directed by his son Francis Ford Coppola. Carmine's other children are actress Talia Shire (born Talia Rose Coppola), who starred in Rocky and The Godfather II, and August Coppola. August was Nicolas' dad, a literature professor and the only one of Carmine's three children not to pursue a career in film (per Entertainment Weekly).
Growing up outside of Hollywood made Cage want in, as he shared with New York magazine. "I felt like, 'Why do they have all this stuff when my brothers and I don't? I'm going to get even somehow.'"
While Cage changed his last name to distance himself from his famous family, it's all love between him and his famous cousins still working in the business.