Talia Shire

Talia Shire

Active - 1968 - 2023  |   Born - Apr 25, 1946 in Lake Success, New York, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Crime, Action

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Biography by AllMovie

Talia Shire (born Talia Coppola) attended the Yale School of Drama and landed roles in several Roger Corman films. The sister of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, she benefited from her family connection when she was cast in The Godfather (1972), launching her screen career in earnest. After receiving a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in The Godfather Part II (1974), Shire was cast by Sylvester Stallone to play his girlfriend in the hit Rocky (1976), for which she won the New York Film Critics Award and received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Although Shire went on to appear in a number of films throughout the 1980s and '90s, her career primarily revolved around the eight films emerging from the original Godfather and Rocky movies. Divorced from composer David Shire, she later married producer Jack Schwartzman; the two of them developed movie projects together, forming the TaliaFilm production company. The mother of actors Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman, Shire directed the film One Night Stand in 1994.

She continued to act in a number of films including The Landlady, Lured Innocence, and Kiss the Bride. In 2004 she was cast in I Heart Huckabees playing the mother of the character portrayed by her real life son Jason Schwartzman. She appeared thanks to archival footage in Rocky Balboa. She also appeared in a pair of National Lampoon comedies.

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Factsheet

  • Suffered from severe shyness as a child.
  • Attended the School of Drama at Yale University on a scholarship; dropped out during her second year in order to focus on movies.
  • Began her film career in several Roger Corman-produced films, beginning with her film debut in The Wild Racers (1968).
  • In 1974, both she and her brother, director Francis Ford Coppola, were nominated for Oscars, making them the first brother-sister combo to be nominated in the same year.
  • Her character in Rocky, Adrian Pennino, is named for her maternal grandfather, Francesco Pennino.
  • Started a production company called TaliaFilm II with her second husband, Jack Schwartzman.