LOS ANGELES -- August Coppola, a former literature professor and the father of actor Nicolas Cage and the brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, has died. He was 75.

Coppola died Oct. 29 in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack, Cage's publicist, Annett Wolf, said.

Often described as flamboyant and eccentric, Coppola taught comparative literature at California State University, Long Beach, in the 1960s and '70s, and served as a trustee of the California State University system before moving to California State University, San Francisco, in 1984. He became dean of the School of Creative Arts there and professor in the department of design and industry until 1992.

Coppola was born Feb. 16, 1934, in Hartford, Conn., the oldest child of Carmine Coppola, a composer and classically trained flutist, and his wife Italia, a lyricist.

``He was a great older brother to me and always looked out for me,'' Francis Coppola, the award-winning director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, said in an interview with the cinema journal Film Comment. ``He was like the star of the family, and I did most of what I did to imitate him.''

August Coppola and his wife, dancer Joy Vogelsang, had three sons, Christopher, Marc and Nicolas, before divorcing. Christopher became a film director and Marc a disc jockey. In addition to his brother, sister and sons, Coppola's survivors include five grandchildren.