ABOUT

Fred Roos

(1934-2024)

Fred Roos’ eye for spotting talent was legendary. First, as a preeminent casting director, then as an Academy Award winning producer, he discovered, nurtured and/or ignited the careers of unknown actors who became household names.

Harrison Ford, speaking at Roos’ memorial in 2024, said, “Fred Roos invented me. He made me up out of those things that he thought I should be and imbued me with confidence. What Fred did for me, he did for many, many people in our business. His influence was enormous.”

Roos was also certain Jack Nicholson would be a star just by watching him/neffortlessly take over the room at parties. In 1964, he cast Nicholson in two low- budget action films he produced in the Philippines – “Flight to Fury” and “Back Door/nto Hell.” Afterwards, as a casting director, he championed Nicholson’s to anyone who would listen until Jack’s onscreen magic was apparent to everyone.

While attending an off-Broadway play at the request of an actor friend, another actor in the production caught his eye. He was sure this unknown actor would be perfect for an important role in “The Godfather,” which he was casting. The character was Fredo; the actor, John Cazale.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Fred was one of the great casting talents in the last 60 years of American movies,” Francis Ford Coppola said.

After Coppola recommended him to George Lucas, Roos assembled a cast of newcomers, including Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Suzanne Somers, plus Ford in a small role, for “American Graffiti.”

As “Star Wars” casting director, Roos persuaded Lucas to cast Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. After considerable lobbying, he finally won the day when Ford was chosen to star as Hans Solo.

Tom Cruise, Diane Keaton, Laurence Fishburne, Martin Sheen, Nicolas Cage, Billy Bob Thornton, Diane Lane, Patrick Swayze, Elle Fanning, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Teri Garr, Jennifer Connelly, Frederic Forest and Alden Ehrenreich are a partial list of actors and actresses whose careers Roos helped launch.

Roos returned to producing with “Godfather 2,” the Academy Award winning Best Picture in 1974, for which Roos received an Oscar. It was also the beginning of a 50- year producing collaboration with Coppola and Coppola’s production company, American Zoetrope Studios.

Roos produced “The Conversation,” which received a 1974 Best Picture nomination as well. He returned to the Philippines to produce “Apocalypse Now,” a 1980 Best Picture nominee.

He went on to produce the Coppola directed films “One From the Heart,” “Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” “The Godfather Part III,” “Youth Without Youth” and “Tetro.”

As the Coppola family’s quasi consigliere, Roos also won an Emmy as Executive Producer on “Heart of Darkness”, the famed documentary directed by Francis’ wife Eleanor Coppola about the making of “Apocalypse Now.”

He spotted their daughter’s creative gifts early on. When Sofia Coppola became a director, he executive produced “The Virgin Suicides,” “Lost In Translation,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Somewhere,” “The Bling Ring,” “Beguiled,” “On the Rocks” and “Priscilla.”

Among Roos’ over 100 other film producing credits are “Barfly,” “Hammet,” directed by Wim Wenders. and the Golden Globe nominated “St. Vincent,” starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy.

In addition to his unerring intuition for acting and directing talents, Roos recognized novels that could be adapted into memorable films, like the one he loved reading as a young boy, The Black Stallion. After American Zoetrope agreed to back it, Roos produced the beloved Oscar nominated “The Black Stallion,” as well as its subsequent film offshoots.

After reading The Outsiders, a novel recommended by an elementary school librarian, he knew it would make a great coming of age film. Coppola agreed and directed the classic film adaptation, which Roos produced.

Decades later, Roos had an epiphany – The Outsiders should be a stage musical. He got S.E. Hinton, author of the novel, and American Zoetrope on board. With their support, the project eventually made its way to Broadway, where it won 4 Tonys, including Best Musical of 2024.

That same year, Roos produced his final film, Coppola’s longtime passion project, “Megalopolis.”

A few days later, after it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, Roos passed away, a few days shy of his 90th birthday.

He was determined never to retire from the film industry and to go with his boots on.

Alexander "Sandy" Roos

Alexander’s diverse career took off as a child actor. A 2011 graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he majored in Film Production and received a scholarship for his cinematography achievements. Alexander graduated at the top of his class.

Upon graduation, Annapurna Founder Megan Ellison hired him as a Production Assistant on Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Ellison then brought him on as the Office Assistant for Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal on Zero Dark Thirty, where he managed the sensitive material in the safe. Alexander also worked on Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are and as a Production Assistant on Sofia Coppola’s films Somewhere and The Bling Ring.

Alexander then ventured into directing, making I Thought I Was Hallucinating, a documentary about avant-garde theater master Robert Wilson. Before that, he had directed a behind-the-scenes documentary of Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette and the documentary Everybody Goes to Duc’s, both of which were accepted in the Berlin Film Festival Talent Campus.

Alexander, worked closely with billionaire Charles S. Cohen and Daniel Battsek, the current head of Film 4, developed their slate of films for the newly formed Cohen Media Group. Subsequently, he collaborated with renowned filmmakers Sofia Coppola, Doug Liman, and Greg Berlanti on various film and television projects.

As a producer and partner in FR Productions, Alexander demonstrated his versatility by developing and producing three films simultaneously and overlapping. These films included I’ll Find You, a WW2 drama starring Skellan Skarsgård, directed by Martha Coolidge shot in Poland; Wonderwell, a Rome-set fantasy film starring Carrie Fisher in her final role; and Making Babies, a rom-com shot in Los Angeles.

In collaboration with his father, Alexander built a slate of films that are in various stages of development/pre-production. Many of the projects, ideas of Fred’s are yet to be realized. Alexander will ensure that Fred’s legacy will live on.

“It was a great blessing to have him in my life, both as my father and partner. More stories to tell.“

Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming January 2026 relaunch of FR Productions Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming January 2026 relaunch of FR Productions