The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation

Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" is his masterpiece in between masterpieces. The legendary filmmaker wrapped principal photography in late February 1973, just one month before he would win the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for "The Godfather" (Albert Ruddy took home the Best Picture Oscar as the mafia classic's producer). Had Paramount released the film that year, it almost certainly would've received nominations for Best Picture and Director (over the wholly forgotten "A Touch of Class"), giving Coppola three consecutive nods in the latter category, a feat only accomplished once in Academy Awards history (by William Wyler). Instead, he wound up competing against himself a year later, when he added three more Oscars (Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay) to his trophy case with "The Godfather Part II."

While "The Godfather" movies placed him atop Hollywood's director A-list for the rest of the decade, some cinephiles believe "The Conversation" is the superior film. The paranoid thriller about surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), who's convinced he's recorded evidence of a murder plot, is seamlessly crafted and densely layered with narrative and thematic detail. It's a film that demands multiple viewings, and, as internet sleuths use slivers of audio/visual information to concoct theories about everything from 9/11 to 10/7, it only gets more relevant with each passing year.

The collaboration between Coppola and genius film/sound editor Walter Murch is peerless, but it would all be a lot of empty technique were it not for the brilliant performances that draw us into the movie's dense tangle of intrigue. Coppola assembled a first-rate cast, some of whom we've lost over the years. John Cazale was taken from us far too soon in 1978, while we only recently lost Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest. Happily, many of the key players are still with us. So let's celebrate them and see what they're up to 50 years after the film's theatrical release!

Cast as Meredith, the sex worker who absconds with Caul's recording at the behest of the Director (Robert Duvall), MacRae is a boozily charming delight. She's easy to underestimate, which is due in part to her ditzy affect as well as her endearing portrayal of Jim Nabors' girlfriend on "The Andy Griffith Show" spin-off "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

The South Carolina-born MacRae was a veteran television actor by the time Coppola cast her in "The Conversation." She made her small-screen debut in 1958 on the courtroom drama "The Verdict Is Yours," and worked steadily in the broadcast medium for the next 30-plus years. Throw on an episode of shows as different as "Rawhide," "Kojak," or "Rhoda," and you might run across the enchanting Southerner. MacRae left the industry in the 1990s, and moved to North Carolina where, in 2001, she made a rare stage appearance in a regional theater production of "Picnic." She turned 88 last February, and is hopefully savoring her retirement.

The man who would be Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, and Jack Stanfield was still an up-and-coming actor when Coppola cast him as the supremely untrustworthy Martin Stett, assistant to Duvall's unnamed Director. Ford had recently appeared in the Coppola-produced "American Graffiti" as cocky hot-rodder Bob Falfa, but moviegoers didn't really have a handle on what he could do as an actor. If you were to predict where he might go as an actor from these two performances, you never would've guessed he had superstar potential.

You're probably up to date on Ford's post-"The Conversation" career, but in case you just roused from a coma, aside from a early-to-mid-2000s slump, he's been one of the most dependable leading men in film history. After bidding a wistful farewell to our favorite adventuring archaeologist in 2023's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," he's gracefully segued to television as Jacob Dutton in the "Yellowstone" prequel "1923" and Jason Segal's therapist foil Dr. Paul Rhoades on "Shrinking."

As Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen in the "The Godfather" movies, Duvall was both intimidating and intimidated as his character's fortunes rise and fall within the crime family. He brings that same unsettling energy to his uncredited portrayal of The Director, the shadowy business executive who hires Harry Caul to eavesdrop on his wife and presumed lover. He doesn't have a lot to do in "The Conversation," but his presence speaks volumes.

Duvall had been a familiar face in movies prior to "The Godfather," but that was the film that kicked his career into high gear. Since then, it's been extraordinarily rare to go more than a year in between Duvall performances. He's received seven Academy Award nominations over his 62 years in the movies, winning one for his soulful portrayal of alcoholic country musician Mac Sledge in Bruce Beresford's wonderful "Tender Mercies." Duvall turned 93 last January, and shows no signs of slowing down. In 2022, he co-starred with Adam Sandler in the basketball drama "Hustle," and appeared in Scott Cooper's eerie "The Pale Blue Dot." We'll see him next in the Ed Harris-directed drama "The Ploughmen." It's a gift to have a master like Duvall still plugging away.

Teri Garr was transitioning from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies like "Viva Las Vegas," "Roustabout," and "Clambake" to full-on acting when Coppola cast her as Harry Caul's mistress Amy Fredericks in "The Conversation." Her indefatigable playfulness is on lovable display here, and this quality would verily bubble over later in 1974 when she played the hay-rolling Inga in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein."

Over the next decade and change, Garr would bring vibrantly to life a varied assortment of women determined to break free of emotional and/or professional confinement. She's heartbreaking as the bored travel agent Frannie in Coppola's "One from the Heart," explosively funny as struggling actor Sandy Lester in Sydney Pollack's "Tootsie" (for which she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination), and inspiring as working mother Caroline Butler in Stan Dragoti's ever-so-1980s comedy "Mr. Mom." Garr is a remarkably resourceful actor who proved her dramatic chops in Michael Apted's underseen "Firstborn," but filmmakers generally failed to find roles worthy of her abundant talent. Garr, however, has never stopped fighting. After going public with her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2002, she's been a vocal advocate for those suffering from the disease. She retired from acting in 2011, but, at the age of 79, she still gives interviews to share her continuing battle with MS.

There are those who argue that Harry Caul represents an early high-water mark for Gene Hackman, and it's certainly a more layered and intellectually engaging performance than the one that earned him his first Academy Award in "The French Connection." Caul is a difficult, controlling, guilt-ridden mess of a man who, desperate to atone for his sins, proceeds to ruin his life.

What can you say about a gem like Hackman? A ton. I declared him the Best Actor Ever for a piece right here at /Film, and dearly miss his presence in movies. It's been 20 years since he retired from acting (after giving a perfectly professional performance in the anemic Ray Romano vehicle "Welcome to Mooseport"), and he has adamantly resisted offers to return to the screen. Hackman is currently enjoying retirement in the Florida Keys at the age of 94. He's written a few books, but, for the most part, seems happy to never act again. That makes one of us.