Editing Nicolas Cage (section)

==Early life and family==
Cage was born in [[Long Beach, California]], to [[August Coppola]], a professor of literature, and Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer. He was raised in a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] family. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of mainly German and Polish descent with some English and Scottish ancestry on her father's side.<ref name="MSQa6" /><ref name="fennell" /><ref name="pexNq" /> His paternal grandparents were composer [[Carmine Coppola]] and actress [[Italia Pennino]], and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from [[Bernalda]], Basilicata.<ref name="cowie" /> Through his father, he is a nephew of both director [[Francis Ford Coppola]] and actress [[Talia Shire]], and a cousin of directors [[Roman Coppola]] and [[Sofia Coppola]], film producer [[Gian-Carlo Coppola]], and actors [[Robert Schwartzman|Robert]] and [[Jason Schwartzman]].<ref name="Bkxdm" /><ref name="XRDiv" />

Cage is the youngest of three sons. His two brothers are New York radio personality [[Marc Coppola (actor)|Marc "The Cope" Coppola]] and director [[Christopher Coppola]]. He attended [[Beverly Hills High School]],<ref name="6f4NO" /> which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended [[UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television]]. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of ''[[Golden Boy (play)|Golden Boy]]''.<ref name="VloOK" /> He said he started acting because he "wanted to be [[James Dean]]. I saw him in ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'', ''[[East of Eden (film)|East of Eden]]''. Nothing affected me—no rock song, no classical music—the way Dean affected me in ''Eden''. It blew my mind. I was like, 'That's what I want to do'."<ref name="Qpcsl" />

At age 15, he tried to convince his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, to give him a [[screen test]], telling him "I'll show you acting." His outburst was met with "silence in the car."<ref name="Ch7cf" /> By this stage of his career, Coppola had already directed [[Marlon Brando]], [[Al Pacino]], [[Gene Hackman]] and [[Robert De Niro]]. Although early in his career Cage appeared in some of his uncle's films, he changed his name to Nicolas Cage to avoid the appearance of [[nepotism]] as Coppola's nephew. His choice of name was inspired by the [[Marvel Comics]] superhero [[Luke Cage]] and composer [[John Cage]].<ref name="nytimes-1996">{{cite news|title=Nicholas Cage, The Sunshine Man|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/24/movies/film-nicholas-cage-the-sunshine-man.html|first=Ellen |last=Pall|date=July 24, 1994|access-date=March 21, 2022|archive-date=January 26, 2021|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126164143/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/24/movies/film-nicholas-cage-the-sunshine-man.html}}</ref><ref name="bio" />