:''This article is about the Hollywood actor. For other uses, see
Gary Cooper (disambiguation)''.
'Gary Cooper' (born 'Frank James Cooper'
May 7,
1901 –
May 13,
1961) was a two-time
Academy Award-winning
American film
actor of
English heritage. His career spanned from the 1920s until the year of his death, and saw him make one hundred films. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited for the many
Westerns he made.
Cooper received five
Oscar nominations for
Best Actor, winning twice. He also received an Honorary Award from the Academy in 1961. In 1999, the
American Film Institute named Cooper among the
Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 11.
Childhood
Cooper was born 'Frank James Cooper' in
Helena, Montana, the son of
Bedfordshire,
England native turned American rancher, Charles Henry Cooper and Montana-born Alice Cooper. After starting school in
Bozeman, Gary moved with his parents to England, along with his elder brother Arthur LeRoy Cooper (1895 - 1982). The two boys attended
Dunstable School between 1910 and 1913.
When he was 13, Gary was injured in an automobile accident, and returned to his father's cattle ranch in
Montana to recuperate, where he learned his riding skills. During this time, he became friendly with 10-year-old neighbor
Myrna Loy. Cooper started college at Montana Wesleyan (now defunct) in Helena, then transferred to Iowa's
Grinnell College, where he tried out, unsuccessfully, for the Drama Club. He attended until the spring of 1924 but did not graduate.
[1] He then returned to Helena, assisting his father on the ranch and contributing cartoons to the local paper, before seeking his fortune in Chicago.
[2]
Hollywood
After trying unsuccessfully in Chicago to become a commercial artist, Cooper decided to move to California, reasoning that he "would rather starve where it was warm, than to starve and freeze too"
[3] Failing as a salesman of electric signs, the 6'3 Cooper found he could earn money as an "extra" in the motion picture industry, usually cast as a cowboy; he is known to have been in an uncredited role in the 1925
Tom Mix Western, ''Dick Turpin''
[4]. A year later, he had screen credit in a two-reeler, ''Lightnin' Wins'', with actress Eileen Sedgewick as his leading lady. After the release of this short film, he accepted a long-term contract with
Paramount Studios. He changed his name to Gary in 1925, following the advice of his agent, who felt it evoked the "rough, tough" nature of
Gary, Indiana.
"Coop", as he was called by his peers, went on to appear in over 100 films. He became a major star with his first sound picture, ''
The Virginian'', in 1929. The lead in the screen adaptation of ''
A Farewell to Arms'' (1932) and the title role in 1936's ''
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' furthered his box office appeal. Cooper was producer
David O. Selznick's first choice for the role of
Rhett Butler in the 1939 film ''
Gone with the Wind''.
[5] When Cooper turned down the role, he was passionately against it. He is quoted as saying, "''Gone with the Wind'' is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be
Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me".
[6][7] Alfred Hitchcock wanted him to star in ''
Foreign Correspondent'' (
1940) and ''
Saboteur'' (
1942). Cooper later admitted he had made a "mistake" in turning down the director. For the former film, Hitchcock cast look-alike
Joel McCrea instead.
In 1941, he won his first
Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as the title character in ''
Sergeant York''.
Alvin York refused to authorize a movie about his life unless Gary Cooper was the actor who portrayed him.
In 1952, Cooper won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in ''
High Noon'', considered his finest role. He wasn't present to receive his Academy Award in February 1953. He asked
John Wayne to accept it on his behalf.
Cooper continued to appear in films almost to the end of his life. Among his later box office hits was his portrayal of a Quaker farmer during the Civil War in
William Wyler's ''
Friendly Persuasion'' in 1956. His final motion picture was a British film, ''
The Naked Edge'' (1961), directed by
Michael Anderson. Among his final projects was serving as narrator for an
NBC documentary, ''The Real West,'' in which he helped clear up myths about famous Western figures.
Private life
In October 1947, Cooper testified before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities. Even though he did not name names, he was considered a friendly witness. Although Cooper was politically conservative, his vague, evasive statements raised questions about his agreement with the proceedings.
After high-profile love affairs with actresses
Clara Bow,
Lupe Vélez, and the American-born socialite-spy Countess Carla Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly wife of British pioneer aviator
Claude Grahame-White), Cooper finally married. He wed Veronica Balfe, a New York
Roman Catholic socialite who had briefly acted under the name of
Sandra Shaw. They had one child, Maria -- now Maria Cooper Janis, married to classical pianist
Byron Janis. Eventually, his wife persuaded Cooper to become a Roman Catholic in
1958.
After he was married, but prior to his conversion, Cooper had affairs with several famous co-stars, including
Marlene Dietrich,
Grace Kelly, and
Patricia Neal. Cooper's daughter Maria, when she was a little girl, famously spat at Neal, but many years later, the two became friends. British photographer and designer
Cecil Beaton in his autobiography and diaries also claimed to have had an affair with Cooper.
He was friends with
Ernest Hemingway, and spent many vacations with the writer in the winter wonderland of
Sun Valley, Idaho.
In 1961, Cooper died of
prostate cancer six days after his 60th birthday, and was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California. Years later, his body was moved to Sacred Heart Cemetery,
Southampton,
New York.
[8] He had undergone surgery for
prostate cancer which had spread to his colon in the previous year, but as there were no means of monitoring the progress of cancer in those days it then spread to his lungs and then, most painfully, to his bones. Cooper was too ill to attend the
Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961, so his close friend
James Stewart accepted the honorary Oscar on his behalf. Stewart's emotional speech hinted that something was seriously wrong, and the next day newspapers all over the world ran the headline, "Gary Cooper has cancer". One month later Cooper was dead.
Legacy
For his contribution to the film industry, Gary Cooper has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6243 Hollywood Blvd. In 1966, he was inducted into the
Western Performers Hall of Fame at the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His name has also been immortalized in
Irving Berlin's song "
Puttin' on the Ritz" with the line, "Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper, (super duper)".
Charlton Heston often cited Cooper as a childhood role model, and later got to work with him on ''The Wreck of the Mary Deare'' (1959). Heston praised Cooper for doing his own stunts despite his age and poor health. He has been briefly mentioned a few times on the
HBO drama, ''
The Sopranos'', when the main character,
Tony Soprano, remarks that he admired Gary Cooper for being the strong, silent type.
Morgan Freeman while being interviewed on
The Adam Carolla Show in 2007, stated that watching Cooper as a young man has inspired him to act.
Filmography
Features
★ Note: imdb.com has speculated, but has not confirmed, that Cooper may have been an uncredited extra in the 1923 film ''The Last Hour''. Other sources indicate that Cooper was a student at Grinnell College in 1923, and did not move to California until 1925.
Short Subjects
★ ''The Spider's Net'' (
1924)
★ ''The Slippery Pearls'' (
1931)
★ ''The Voice of Hollywood No. 13'' (
1932)
★ ''Hollywood on Parade'' (1932)
★ ''The Hollywood Gad-About'' (
1934)
★ ''Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove'' (
1935)
★ ''La Fiesta de Santa Barbara'' (1935)
★ ''Lest We Forget'' (
1937)
★ ''Screen Snapshots: Seeing Hollywood'' (
1940)
★ ''Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 6'' (1940)
★ ''Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 3'' (
1942)
★ ''Memo for Joe'' (
1944)
★ ''Snow Carnival'' (
1949) (narrator)
★ ''Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc.'' (1949)
★ ''Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Premiere'' (
1955)
★ ''Screen Snapshots: Glamorous Hollywood'' (
1958)
Notes
1. Current Biography 1941, pp 170-71
2. Id.
3. Current Biography 1941
4. imdb.com
5. Memo from David O. Selznick, , David O., Selznick, Modern Library, 2000, ISBN 0-375-75531-4
6. GoneMovie -> Biography Gary Cooper
7. Paul Donnelley (June 1, 2003). ''Fade To Black: A Book Of Movie Obituaries, 2nd Edition''. Omnibus Press.
8. Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper Off Camera: A Daughter Remembers, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, NY (1999), page 167
External links
★
★
★
The Gary Cooper Pages
★
Find-A-Grave profile for Gary Cooper
★
Photographs of Gary Cooper
★
Profile @
Turner Classic Movies
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