Gary Cooper

Throughout his long and distinguished career, Gary Cooper consistently projected a screen image of integrity and sincerity that epitomized the ideal American. Tall, handsome and soft-spoken, he injected his own likable self into whatever role assumed, always triumphing over adversity, regardless of the odds or circumstances. He never played a malicious or dishonest man; that would have just been too much against type, and 'Coop' possessed an uncanny intuitive sense about what was theatrically right. He was arguably the greatest natural actor in American cinema (though some critics dismissed him as a mere "personality star") with audiences responding to his screen presence from the beginning, making him one of the most popular film stars ever. A favorite of directors like Henry Hathaway, Cecil B. DeMille and Frank Capra, Cooper portrayed a steady diet of heroes, as comfortable in a lounge suit as he was in buckskins. During his peak period (1935-1945), he proved, even to his detractors, that he was an actor of subtlety and depth, enjoying a remarkable love affair with the camera.

Born Frank James Cooper to British-born parents, he spent his early years on a ranch in Montana until his mother took him and his older brother to England in 1910. After seven years, Cooper returned to the USA, attended college and eventually joined his family in Los Angeles. Arriving as an aspiring 23-year-old cartoonist, he began appearing as an extra and stunt rider in Westerns after failing to impress the newspapers with his artwork. On the advice of a casting director (later his agent), he changed his first name to "Gary" (after the Indiana city) and got his big break, a pivotal role in "The Winning of Barbara Worth" (1926), supporting Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. The film's producer, Samuel Goldwyn, offered him a contract for $65 per week, but Cooper instead signed with Paramount for the much higher salary of $150 per week. Soon he was starring in oaters like "Arizona Bound", "Nevada" and "The Last Outlaw" (all 1927), but it was a featured part in that year's "Wings", one of the most famous silent films of all time, that really triggered an onslaught of fan mail. The studio eased him in front of a microphone for the final scenes of "The Shopworn Girl" (1928), and his voice recorded well. By the early 1930s his exceptional good looks and slow, thoughtful delivery was endearing him to film fans the world over as Paramount matched him against a bevy of beauties: Marlene Dietrich ("Morocco" 1930), Carole Lombard ("I Take This Woman" 1931), Claudette Colbert ("His Woman" 1931) and Tallulah Bankhead ("Devil and the Deep" 1932).

Cooper struck a lasting friendship with the writer Ernest Hemingway, playing the first of his detached Hemingway heroes in "A Farewell to Arms" (1932), opposite Helen Hayes. As he embarked on his first of seven films with Hathaway ("Now and Forever" 1934), he was about to enter a period where almost all his films were exceptional. His Best Actor Oscar nomination as the multi-millionaire trying to give away his inheritance in Capra's "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936) attests to his facility for comedy, but there was always a Western around the corner like DeMille's "The Plainsman" (1937) or William Wyler's "The Westerner" (1940) for him to inhabit. Though he was a perfect fit with the cowboy iconography, Cooper also possessed a chameleon quality that enabled him to be equally adept in a remarkably varied oeuvre. Make him the hero and put him in any walk of life, and he could embody that interpretation of the American Dream. He won his first Oscar as "Sergeant York" (1941), the most decorated US serviceman of World War I, worked hard to overcome his unfamiliarity with baseball to give an excellent, Oscar-nominated performance as Lou Gehrig in "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942) and slipped readily back into the skin of a Hemingway character for another Oscar-nominated turn in the Spanish Civil War tale, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943).

In one of his last films for Paramount, Cooper made a credible nuclear physicist caught up in espionage for Fritz Lang's "Cloak and Dagger" (1946), and though many thought him miscast as the idealistic architect of "The Fountainhead" (1949), women responded strongly to his rugged individualism, especially the sight of him bare-chested in the quarry. The peak of his career having passed, he found himself in the doldrums at Warner Bros., but there remained at least one last, great defining part ahead. 'Coop' took a cut in salary in exchange for a percentage of the profits on Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon" (1952), marking the beginning of big star participation in movie-making. He delivered a magnificently understated performance as the middle-aged sheriff who must fight one more battle before retirement, earning universal acclaim and the second Best Actor Academy Award of his career. Of his subsequent movies, Wyler's "Friendly Persuasion" (1956) probably showed him to best advantage as a Quaker drawn reluctantly into the Civil War, though Anthony Mann's "Man of the West" (1958), dismissed at the time, has more recently gained in reputation. In his last years, Cooper made minor films, dying of cancer in May 1961, shortly after receiving an honorary Oscar for his contributions to the industry.

• Also Credited As:
  Frank James Cooper
• Born:
  May 7, 1901 in Helena, Montana, USA
• Died:
  May 13, 1961.
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Cartoonist, Producer, Guide, Ranch hand, Salesman

Family

• Brother: Arthur Cooper. born in 1895; survived him
• Daughter: Maria Veronica Balfe Cooper. married to composer Byron Janis c. 1966 and from whom she separated in 1996
• Father: Charles Henry Cooper. British-born; moved to the USA at age 19; settled in Montana; practiced law and eventually served on the Montana State Supreme Court; purchased the Seven-Bar-Nine ranch c. 1906; died in 1946
• Mother: Alice Cooper. British; returned to England with her two sons in 1910, purportedly for health reasons; returned to the USA after seven years during WWI; survived him

Significant Others

• Companion: Anderson Lawler. contract player with Paramount; lived together in 1929
• Companion: Clara Bow. appeared together in It (1927) and three other movies; had relationship in the late 1920s
• Companion: Dorothy di Frasso. American-born daughter of multi-millionaire Bertrand L Taylor
• Companion: Evelyn Brent. Cooper s mother said, Evelyn has been good to Gary; she has given him poise, she has taught him to think; her influence has been excellent, and I will always regard her with affection and gratitude ; the pair worked together on Beau Sabreur (1926) and Paramount on Parade (1930)
• Companion: Lupe Velez. co-starred with Cooper in Wolf Song (1929) and shared a Laurel Canyon hideaway with him; his mother disapproved and came between the pair
• Companion: Marlene Dietrich. met during filming of Morocco (1930); Cooper s wife served Dietrich with a writ during divorce proceedings; writ later dropped
• Companion: Patricia Neal. appeared in three films together in 1949-50, including The Fountainhead ; had affair which led to Cooper s separation from his wife; relationship ended c. 1951

Education

• Wesleyan College, Bozeman, Montana
• Dunstable School, England

Milestones

• 1910 Moved to England with his mother and older brother
• 1917 Returned to the USA
• 1923 Submitted many delightful cartoons and caricatures to the Helena (Montana) INDEPENDENT
• 1924 Joined his parents in Los Angeles, hoping to interest local newspapers in his artistic abilities
• 1925 Screen acting debut in The Thundering Herd
• 1926 First came to attention as second lead in The Winning of Barbara Worth
• 1927 Had first starring role in the silent Arizona Bound (locations shot in Bryce Canyon, Utah); did his own stunt work
• 1927 Had walk-on as a reporter in It , starring Clara Bow; first of four films in which both Bow and Cooper acted
• 1927 Played a key role in William Wellman s Wings , having one scene ( When your time comes, you re going to get it ) before dying; audiences remembered him, and fan mail poured in
• 1928 First feature film with speaking part, The Shopworn Angel
• 1928 Reteamed with Wellman for second flyboy movie, Legion of the Condemned ; first film with Fay Wray
• 1930 Portrayed sardonic, independent soldier, too taciturn to spell out his love for Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg s Morocco
• 1931 Starred opposite Claudette Colbert in His Woman
• 1932 Essayed his first Hemingway character (Frederick Henry) opposite Helen Hayes in Frank Borzage s A Farewell to Arms
• 1933 Fifth and last performance opposite Fay Wray in One Sunday Afternoon
• 1933 Made stage debut at NYC s Paramount Theatre in skit directed by Ernst Lubitsch
• 1933 Played the White Knight in Alice in Wonderland
• 1934 First of seven features with director Henry Hathaway, Now and Forever , co-starring Shirley Temple and Carole Lombard; association with Hathaway actually went back to several films directed by Victor Fleming on which Hathaway assisted
• 1936 Received first of five Academy Award nominations as Best Actor for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , directed by Frank Capra and co-starring Jean Arthur
• 1936 Reunited with Dietrich and Borzage for Desire
• 1937 Starred opposite Arthur in The Plainsman , the first of four films with director Cecil B. DeMille
• 1938 Reteamed with Colbert for Bluebeard s Eighth Wife
• 1939 US Treasury Department reported that Cooper was the nation s top wage earner at $482,819
• 1940 Starred in William Wyler s The Westerner , one of seven Cooper films in which Walter Brennan played a supporting role
• 1940 Turned down the leading role in Alfred Hitchcock s Foreign Correspondent (Joel McCrea undertook the part)
• 1941 Earned first Best Actor Oscar for Howard Hawks Sergeant York , the biopic of the WWI hero
• 1941 Reunited with Capra for Meet John Doe , starring opposite Barbara Stanwyck
• 1942 Portrayed baseball great Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees ; nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor
• 1943 Second time as Hemingway hero (Robert Jordan) in Sam Wood s For Whom the Bell Tolls , opposite Ingrid Bergman; received fourth Best Actor Oscar nomination
• 1945 Formed production company Cinema Artists for making of Along Came Jones ; also producer
• 1945 Romanced Bergman a second time in Wood s Saratoga Trunk
• 1946 Offered credible turn as a nuclear scientist caught up in espionage in Fritz Lang s Cloak and Dagger
• 1947 Played opposite Paulette Goddard in Unconquered , the last of his over 50 films for Paramount; also marked final collaboration with DeMille
• 1947 Testified as a friendly witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), investing Communism in Hollywood
• 1949 His undaunted naturalism contributed strongly to the success of King Vidor s The Fountainhead , co-starring Patricia Neal; Ayn Rand scripted from her 1943 best-selling novel
• 1950 Reteamed with Neal for Bright Leaf ; only film with Lauren Bacall
• 1952 Collected second Best Actor Oscar for his dignified, lone sheriff in High Noon , a suspense Western revolving around the sheriff s crisis of conscience; written by Carl Foreman, it also operated as an allegory for the writer s difficulties with HUAC (he was an uncooperative witness) that led to his blacklisting; Cooper took a cut in salary for a percentage of the profits, marking the beginning of big star participation in movie-making; produced by Stanley Kramer
• 1953 Reteamed with Stanwyck for offbeat Blowing Wild
• 1954 Last of seven films directed by Henry Hathaway, Garden of Evil , co-starring Susan Hayward and Richard Widmark
• 1955 Made TV debut as guest on The Steve Allen Show
• 1955 Suffered for his foresight as the title character of Otto Preminger s The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell
• 1956 Played a Quaker drawn reluctantly into Civil War in Wyler s Friendly Persuasion
• 1956 Told his memoirs to SATURDAY EVENING POST writer George Scullins, and they appeared in eight installments, entitled Well, It Was This Way
• 1957 Romanced younger woman Audrey Hepburn in sparkling comedy Love in the Afternoon , director Billy Wilder s first film co-written with I.A.L. Diamond
• 1958 Converted to Roman Catholicism, the religion of his wife and daughter
• 1958 Formed Baroda Productions; first film The Hanging Tree (1959)
• 1958 Underwent treatment for an ulcer and had minor facial surgery
• 1959 Acted in four films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare , directed by Michael Anderson
• 1960 Had two major abdominal operations for stomach cancer
• 1961 Last film, The Naked Edge (for Baroda), helmed by Michael Anderson; released posthumously
• 1961 Narrated and appeared in the excellent documentary The Real West , produced as part of NBC-TV s Project 20 series; aired on March 26
• 1961 Presented with honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement on April 17; accepted by longtime friend Jimmy Stewart because Cooper was too ill to attend
• 1968 A nationwide televison popularity poll conducted by VARIETY still included Cooper and Clark Gable, though both had departed the scene nearly a decade before
• Born in and spent early childhood living in Montana
• During the summers while in college, worked as a guide in Yellowstone National Park
• Worked as stunt rider and extra in Westerns before making acting debut