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On [[December 15]], [[1933]], Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, ([[May 27]], [[1913]] - [[February 16]] [[2000]]). Balfe was a [[New York]] [[Roman Catholic]] socialite who had briefly acted under the name of [[Sandra Shaw]]. She appeared in the film ''No Other Woman'', but her most widely seen role was in ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'', as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was ''[[Blood Money]]''. Her father was governor of the [[New York Stock Exchange]], and her uncle was [[Cedric Gibbons]]. During the [[1930s]] she also became the [[California]] state women's [[skeet]] champion. They had one child, Maria, now [[Maria Cooper Janis]], married to classical pianist [[Byron Janis]].
On [[December 15]], [[1933]], Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, ([[May 27]], [[1913]] - [[February 16]] [[2000]]). Balfe was a [[New York]] [[Roman Catholic]] socialite who had briefly acted under the name of [[Sandra Shaw]]. She appeared in the film ''No Other Woman'', but her most widely seen role was in ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'', as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was ''[[Blood Money]]''. Her father was governor of the [[New York Stock Exchange]], and her uncle was [[Cedric Gibbons]]. During the [[1930s]] she also became the [[California]] state women's [[skeet]] champion. 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{{fact|date=June 2008}} spat at Neal, but many years later, the two became friends. Cooper separated from his wife between [[1951]] and [[1954]].
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]]. In October 1950 he pressured Neal to have an abortion after she became pregnant with his child.<ref>Meyer, Jeffrey ''Gary Cooper: American Hero'' (1998)</ref> Cooper's daughter Maria, when she was a little girl, famously{{fact|date=June 2008}} spat at Neal, but many years later, the two became friends. Cooper separated from his wife between [[1951]] and [[1954]].


Cooper was friends with [[Ernest Hemingway]] and spent many vacations with the writer in the winter wonderland of [[Sun Valley, Idaho]].
Cooper was friends with [[Ernest Hemingway]] and spent many vacations with the writer in the winter wonderland of [[Sun Valley, Idaho]].


===Death from cancer===
===Death from cancer===
Cooper underwent surgery for [[prostate cancer]] after it had spread to his [[colon]]. It then spread to his lungs and then, most painfully{{fact|date=June 2008}}, to his bones.
Cooper underwent surgery for [[prostate cancer]] in April 1960, but it had spread to his [[colon]] so he underwent a second operation<ref>Meyer, Jeffrey ''Gary Cooper: American Hero'' (1998)</ref>. It then spread to his lungs and then, most painfully{{fact|date=June 2008}}, to his bones.


Cooper was too ill to attend the [[33rd Academy Awards|Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961]], so his close friend [[James Stewart (actor)|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, six days after his 60th birthday.
Cooper was too ill to attend the [[33rd Academy Awards|Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961]], so his close friend [[James Stewart (actor)|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, six days after his 60th birthday.

Revision as of 12:25, 29 June 2008

For the English footballer, see Gary Cooper (footballer).
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952)
Born
Frank James Cooper
Years active1925[1]-1961
SpouseVeronica Balfe (1933-1961)

Frank James “Gary” Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. 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 to the many Westerns he made. His career spanned from 1924 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.

During his lifetime, Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice, for Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Honorary Award in 1961 from the Academy.

Decades later, the American Film Institute named Cooper among the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars, ranking eleventh among males from the Classical Hollywood cinema period. In 2003, his performances as Will Kane in High Noon, a fictional Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, and the real-life hero Alvin York in Sergeant York made the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, all of them as heroes.

Biography

Childhood

Cooper was born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, one of two sons of a Bedfordshire, England, farmer turned American lawyer and judge, Charles Henry Cooper, and Kent, England-born Alice (née Brazier) Cooper.[2] His mother hoped for their two sons to receive a better education than that available in rough-hewn Montana and arranged for the boys to attend Dunstable Grammar School in Bedfordshire, England between 1910 and 1913. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Mrs. Cooper brought her sons home and enrolled young Frank in a Bozeman, Montana, high school.

When he was 13, Cooper injured his hip in a car accident. He returned to the ranch his parents owned near Helena to recuperate by horseback riding at the recommendation of his doctor. Cooper started college at Montana Wesleyan College (now defunct) in Helena[citation needed], then transferred to Iowa's Grinnell College, where he tried out, unsuccessfully, for the college's drama club. He attended until the spring of 1924 but did not graduate. [3] He then returned to Helena, managing the ranch and contributing cartoons to the local paper. In 1924, Cooper's father left the Montana Supreme Court bench and moved with his wife to Los Angeles. Their son, unable to make a living as an editorial cartoonist in Helena, joined them[4], moving there that same year[1] , reasoning that he "would rather starve where it was warm, than to starve and freeze too."[5]

Hollywood

Failing as a salesman of both electric signs and theatrical curtains, as a promoter for a local photographer, and as an applicant for newspaper work in Los Angeles[4], Cooper first gained work as an actor in 1925.[1] He 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.[6] 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 Pictures. He changed his name to Gary in 1925, following the advice of casting director Nan Collins[7], who felt it evoked the "rough, tough" nature of her native Gary, Indiana.[8]

Cooper in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936).

"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.[9] 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".[10][11] 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 1942, 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 portrayed him.

In 1953, Cooper won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon, considered his finest role. Ill with an ulcer, he wasn't present to receive his Academy Award in February 1953. He asked John Wayne to accept it on his behalf, a bit of irony in light of Wayne's stated distaste for the film.[12]

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 American 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 narrating an NBC documentary, The Real West, in which he helped clear up myths about famous Western figures.

Congressional testimony

While filming Good Sam, Cooper testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on October 23, 1947, characterized as a "friendly" witness. Asked if he had observed "communistic influence in Hollywood", Cooper named no one in particular but said he had "turned down quite a few scripts because I thought they were tinged with communistic ideas"[1]; he also said he had heard statements such as "don't you think the Constitution of the United States is about a 150 years out of date?" and "perhaps this would be a more efficient government without a Congress"— statements he characterized as "very un-American." He also told the committee the following:[1]

Several years ago, when communism was more of a social chit-chatter in parties for offices, and so on when communism didn't have the implications that it has now, discussion of communism was more open and I remember hearing statements from some folks to the effect that the communistic system had a great many features that were desirable. It offered the actors and artists — in other words, the creative people — a special place in government where we would be somewhat immune from the ordinary leveling of income. And as I remember, some actor's name was mentioned to me who had a house in Moscow which was very large — he had three cars, and stuff, with his house being quite a bit larger than my house in Beverly Hills at the time — and it looked to me like a pretty phony come-on to us in the picture business. From that time on, I could never take any of this pinko mouthing very seriously, because I didn't feel it was on the level.

Cooper's testimony occurred a month before the Hollywood blacklist was established.

Personal life

Cooper had high-profile relationships 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).

On December 15, 1933, Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, (May 27, 1913 - February 16 2000). Balfe was a New York Roman Catholic socialite who had briefly acted under the name of Sandra Shaw. She appeared in the film No Other Woman, but her most widely seen role was in King Kong, as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was Blood Money. Her father was governor of the New York Stock Exchange, and her uncle was Cedric Gibbons. During the 1930s she also became the California state women's skeet champion. 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. In October 1950 he pressured Neal to have an abortion after she became pregnant with his child.[13] Cooper's daughter Maria, when she was a little girl, famously[citation needed] spat at Neal, but many years later, the two became friends. Cooper separated from his wife between 1951 and 1954.

Cooper was friends with Ernest Hemingway and spent many vacations with the writer in the winter wonderland of Sun Valley, Idaho.

Death from cancer

Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer in April 1960, but it had spread to his colon so he underwent a second operation[14]. It then spread to his lungs and then, most painfully[citation needed], 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, six days after his 60th birthday.

Cooper was interred in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Culver City, California. Years later, his body was moved to Sacred Heart Cemetery, Southampton, New York.[15][16]

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. He was mention in the lyrics to Irving Berlin's song "Puttin' on the Ritz": "Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper, (super duper)".

Charlton Heston often cited Cooper as a childhood role model[citation needed], and later worked with him on The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston praised Cooper[citation needed] for doing his own stunts despite his age and poor health.

Filmography

Cooper appeared in both feature films and short subjects.

Cooper may have been an uncredited extra in the 1923 film The Last Hour[6], though it is unlikely since Cooper told the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947 that he moved to Hollywood in 1924 and began acting in 1925.[1]

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f Actor Gary Cooper: Testimony to House Un-American Activities Committee, from the CNN website for the Peabody Award-winning 1998 documentary Cold War
  2. ^ Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, pp. 17-18
  3. ^ Current Biography 1941, pp 170-71
  4. ^ a b Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, pp. 22-23
  5. ^ Current Biography 1941
  6. ^ a b Gary Cooper at IMDb
  7. ^ Profile of Cooper from Turner Classic Movies
  8. ^ Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, p. 25
  9. ^ Selznick, David O. (2000). Memo from David O. Selznick. New York: Modern Library. pp. 172–173. ISBN 0-375-75531-4.
  10. ^ GoneMovie -> Biography Gary Cooper
  11. ^ Paul Donnelley (June 1, 2003). Fade To Black: A Book Of Movie Obituaries, 2nd Edition. Omnibus Press.
  12. ^ Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, p. 252
  13. ^ Meyer, Jeffrey Gary Cooper: American Hero (1998)
  14. ^ Meyer, Jeffrey Gary Cooper: American Hero (1998)
  15. ^ Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper Off Camera: A Daughter Remembers, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, NY (1999), page 167
  16. ^ Find-A-Grave profile for Gary Cooper
Template:S-awards
Preceded by Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1953
for High Noon 		Succeeded by
Preceded by NYFCC Award for Best Actor
1941
for Sergeant York 		Succeeded by
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