Robert Coppola Schwartzman

Robert Coppola Schwartzman (born December 24, 1982) is an American actor and musician. Schwartzman is also best known as the lead vocalist of the rock/pop band Rooney. He has also acted in the short black-and-white film Lick the Star and The Virgin Suicides, both directed and co-written by his cousin Sofia Coppola, as well as The Princess Diaries.

Personal life

Schwartzman was born in Los Angeles, California, he is the youngest of three boys of Talia Shire (née Coppola) and the late producer Jack Schwartzman. Many other members of Schwartzman's family are involved in film: he is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, cousin of Nicolas Cage, Sofia Coppola, Roman Coppola and Christopher Coppola, and grandson of Italia Coppola (née Pennino) and Carmine Coppola (the source of his old stage name) and his niece, Gia Coppola. His brother is Jason Schwartzman, lead singer of the band Coconut Records (also an actor and former drummer of the band Phantom Planet) and his half-siblings are Stephanie Schwartzman and cinematographer John Schwartzman. Schwartzman is of Jewish descent on his father's side and of Italian descent on his mother's side.

Robert

The name Robert is a Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic *χrōþi- "fame" and *berχta- "bright". Compare Old Dutch Robrecht and Old High German Hrodebert (a compound of hruod "fame, glory" and berht "bright"). It is also in use as a surname.

After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form Robert, where an Old English cognate form (Hrēodbēorht, Hrodberht, Hrēodbēorð, Hrœdbœrð, Hrœdberð) had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto.

Similar to the name, Richard, "Robert" is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. It can be used as a French, Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian name as well.

Variations

Trivia

Robert, and also the name Joseph, were in the top 10 most given boys' names in the US for 47 years, from 1925 to 1972.

In Italy during the Second World War, the form of the name, Roberto, briefly acquired a new meaning derived from, and referring to the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.