Fred Roos, casting director for landmark films such as “American Graffiti” and who went on to have a close relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, including producing best picture winner “Godfather Part II” and “Apocalypse Now,” died Saturday in Beverly Hills. He was 89.
Roos was both casting director and executive producer on Coppola’s most recent film “Megalopolis” which premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Coppola posted a photo of Roos with Adam Driver on Instagram and thanked him for his work on the long-gestating epic.
Roos was instrumental in helping stars including Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfuss get their early notable roles.
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His long collaboration with Coppola as producer or co-producer included “The Conversation,” “One From the Heart,” “The Outsiders,” “Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Tetro,” “Youth Without Youth” and “Tucker: The Man and His Dream.”
Roos was not credited, but served as a casting consultant on the first “Star Wars.” Harrison Ford was doing cabinetry work for Roos, who cast him in “American Graffiti,” then convinced George Lucas to give him a chance as Han Solo.
“I had already brought him to George’s attention in ‘American Graffiti,’” Roos told Entertainment Weekly about Ford. “Even though he was terrific, it was all night shooting and he’d only worked maybe 10 days on the whole movie. George hadn’t really gotten to know him.”
For Sofia Coppola, whom he babysat when she was a child, Roos produced “The Virgin Suicides,” “Lost in Translation,” “The Bling Ring” and “Marie Antoinette” and served as executive producer on “Priscilla.”
Born in Santa Monica, Roos became friends with Garry Marshall while serving in the Army in Korea. He went to UCLA Film School, then got a job as an agent at MCA.
He started out casting for television, then served as casting director on notable films including “Zabriskie Point,” “Fat City,” “Petulia” and “Five Easy Pieces” after he had already gotten Nicholson an earlier role. He cast Monte Hellman’s “Two-Lane Blacktop” before working with Coppola for the first time, as casting director of “The Godfather.”
In 1988, Roos was with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Casting Society of America, and was honored by the Telluride Film Festival in 2004. On the occasion of the Telluride honor, he spoke to the Boston Globe about casting Marlon Brando. Roos and Coppola had gone to London to tape him in character and convince the Paramount executives he would be right as Don Corleone. “Francis brought along a video cameraman without telling Marlon, and some Italian cigars and sausages, and Marlon started playing around and he just became the character,” recalled Roos. “When Francis showed the tape to [Gulf & Western chief] Charles Bluhdorn, it won the day.”
After Coppola recommended Roos to his protegé Lucas, he cast “American Graffitti,” then moved into producing with Coppola’s “The Conversation.”
Among his other producing credits were Eleanor Coppola’s “Hearts of Darkness” and “Paris Can Wait,” Warren Beatty starrer “Town and Country,” Barbet Schroeder’s “Barfly,” “The Black Stallion” and last year’s “Wonderwell.”
He is survived by his wife, Nancy Drew, and son and producing partner, Alexander “Sandy” Roos.
