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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.
****
Born 7 May 1901
Helena, Montana, USA
Died May 13, 1961
Los Angeles, California, USA
****
Childhood
Cooper was born Frank James Cooper in
Helena, Montana, but as a child lived in Dunstable, England, with his
mother Alice, and elder brother Arthur Le Roy (1895 - 19??). The two
boys attended Dunstable School, a Public School (this term is used in
England for a prestigious, and usually old, private school) between 1910
and 1913.
When he was thirteen years old he was
injured in an automobile accident, and had to move to his father's
cattle ranch in Montana to recuperate, which is where he gained his
riding skills. During this time he became friendly with 10 year old
Myrna Loy, who lived nearby.
Hollywood
In 1924 Cooper moved to Los Angeles with
the intention of becoming an artist for advertisements, but was not very
successful. After three months he became an extra in the motion picture
industry. A year later he had a chance at a real part in a two-reeler
with actress Eileen Sedgewick as his leading lady. After the release of
this short film he was called to Paramount Studios and offered a
long-term contract, which he accepted. 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. In 1941, He won his first Academy
Award for Best Actor for his role as the title character in Sergeant
York. In 1952, Cooper won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his
performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon, considered his finest
role.
Social life
After high-profile love affairs with
actresses Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, and the American-born socialite-spy
Countess Carlo Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly
wife of British aviator Claude Grahame-White), Cooper finally married.
He wed Veronica Balfe, a New York Roman Catholic socialite who worked
briefly as an actress under the name of "Sandra Shaw". They had one
child, Maria (also known as Maria Cooper Janis), and eventually his wife
persuaded Cooper to become a Roman Catholic in 1958. After he was
married and prior to his conversion, Cooper had affairs with several
famous co-stars, including Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and Patricia
Neal. He pressured Neal to have an abortion in 1950[1], since fathering
a child out of wedlock could have destroyed his career. Cooper's
daughter Maria famously spat at Neal when she was a little girl, but
many years later the two reconciled and became friends. British
photographer and designer Cecil Beaton in his autobiography and diaries
also claimed to have had an affair with Cooper.[citation needed]
Death and legacy
In 1961, Cooper died of prostate cancer six
days after his 60th birthday, and was interred in Sacred Heart Cemetery,
Southampton, New York. He had undergone surgery for prostate cancer and
colon cancer in the previous year, but as there were no means of
monitoring the progress of cancer in those days it spread first 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 on the
next day newspapers all over the world ran the headline, "Gary Cooper
has cancer". One month later, the revered star was dead.
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)".
Trivia
Alfred Hitchcock wanted him to star in
Saboteur and Foreign Correspondent. Cooper later admitted he had made a
"mistake" in turning down the director, and for the latter film
Hitchcock cast look-alike Joel McRea instead,
He also attended Grinnell College and
graduated in the class of 26' *(Check the graduation year as he started
his film career in Hollywood in 1925.)
Filmography
Dick Turpin (1925)
The Thundering Herd (1925)
Wild Horse Mesa (1925)
The Lucky Horseshoe (1925)
The Vanishing American (1925)
The Eagle (1925)
Tricks (1925)
Three Pals (1926)
The Enchanted Hill (1926)
Watch Your Wife (1926)
The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)
Old Ironsides (1926)
The Spider's Net (1927)
It (1927)
Arizona Bound (1927)
Children of Divorce (1927)
The Last Outlaw (1927)
Wings (1927)
Nevada (1927)
Half a Bride (1928)
Beau Sabreur (1928)
Doomsday (1928)
The Legion of the Condemned (1928)
Lilac Time (1928)
The First Kiss (1928)
The Shopworn Angel (1928)
The Wolf Song (1929)
Betrayal (1929)
The Virginian (1929)
Seven Days' Leave (1930)
Only the Brave (1930)
Paramount on Parade (1930)
The Texan (1930)
A Man from Wyoming (1930)
The Spoilers (1930)
Morocco (1930)
Fighting Caravans (1931)
The Slippery Pearls (1931) (short subject)
City Streets (1931)
I Take This Woman (1931)
His Woman (1931)
The Voice of Hollywood No. 13 (1932) (short
subject)
Hollywood on Parade (1932) (short subject)
Make Me a Star (1932) (Cameo)
Devil and the Deep (1932)
If I Had A Million (1932)
A Farewell to Arms (1932)
Today We Live (1933)
One Sunday Afternoon (1933)
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
Design for Living (1933)
Operator 13 (1934)
Now and Forever (1934)
The Hollywood Gad-About (1934) (short
subject)
Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934)
(short subject)
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)
The Wedding Night (1935)
Peter Ibbetson (1935)
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) (short
subject)
Desire (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Hollywood Boulevard (1936) (Cameo)
The General Died at Dawn (1936)
The Plainsman (1936)
Lest We Forget (1937) (short subject)
Souls at Sea (1937)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Beau Geste (1939)
The Real Glory (1939)
Screen Snapshots: Seeing Hollywood (1940)
(short subject)
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 6 (1940)
(short subject)
The Westerner (1940)
North West Mounted Police (1940)
Meet John Doe (1941)
Sergeant York (1941)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 3 (1942)
(short subject)
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)
Memo for Joe (1944) (short subject)
Casanova Brown (1944)
Along Came Jones (1945)
Saratoga Trunk (1945)
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Variety Girl (1947)
Unconquered (1947)
Good Sam (1948)
Snow Carnival (1949) (short subject)
(narrator)
The Fountainhead (1949)
It's a Great Feeling (1949) (Cameo)
Task Force (1949)
Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers,
Inc. (1949) (short subject)
Bright Leaf (1950)
Dallas (1950)
You're in the Navy Now (1951)
It's a Big Country (1951)
Starlift (1951) (Cameo)
Distant Drums (1951)
High Noon (1952)
Springfield Rifle (1952)
Return to Paradise (1953)
Blowing Wild (1953)
A Bang on Paris (1954)
Garden of Evil (1954)
Vera Cruz (1954)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Premiere (1955)
(short subject)
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
Friendly Persuasion (1956)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Glamorous Hollywood (1958) (short subject)
Ten North Frederick (1958)
Man of the West (1958)
The Hanging Tree (1959)
Alias Jesse James (1959) (Cameo)
They Came to Cordura (1959)
Premier Khrushchev in the USA (1959)
(documentary)
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
The Naked Edge (1961)
Preceded by:
James Stewart
for The Philadelphia Story Academy Award
for Best Actor
1941
for Sergeant York Succeeded by:
James Cagney
for Yankee Doodle Dandy
Preceded by:
Humphrey Bogart
for The African Queen Academy Award for
Best Actor
1952
for High Noon Succeeded by:
William Holden
for Stalag 17
References
1. Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life
****
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