The Nation - News from May 24, 1987

Movie director Francis Ford Coppola sued actor Griffin O’Neal and seven others, accusing them of contributing to the boating accident that killed his son last Memorial Day. O’Neal, son of actor Ryan O’Neal, drove a rented speedboat under a tow line connecting two other boats on the South River near Annapolis, Md. The line struck Gian Carlo Coppola, 23, and threw him backward, and he died of head injuries. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, does not specify damages but seeks relief on behalf of the younger Coppola’s fiancee, Jacqueline De La Fontaine, and their daughter, Gian Carla Coppola, born seven months after her father’s death.