| Revision as of 06:02, 1 September 2008 editMonkeyzpop (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Rollbackers7,320 edits Undid revision 235444996 It doesn't matter if he screwed your father. You're a banned sockpuppet and you cannot edit. Period. No matter what you write.← Previous edit | Revision as of 13:33, 1 September 2008 edit undo92.11.242.86 (talk) Undid revision 235532873 by Monkeyzpop (talk)I don't care, I will keep adding this forever.Next edit → | ||
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| ===Personal life=== | ===Personal life=== | ||
| Cooper had high-profile relationships with actresses ], ], and the American-born socialite-spy Countess Carla Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly wife of British pioneer ] ]). | Cooper had high-profile relationships with actresses ], ], and the American-born socialite-spy Countess Carla Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly wife of British pioneer ] ]). In ] he shared a house with a gay actor named Anderson Lawler, a contract player at ].<ref>Swindell, Larry ''Gary Cooper: The Last Hero'' (1981)</ref> Sir ] claimed in his diaries and autobiography to have had a long-term affair with Cooper.<ref>Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2006)</ref> | ||
| On ], ], Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, (], ] - ] ]). Balfe was a ] ] socialite who had briefly acted under the name of ]. She appeared in the film ''No Other Woman'', but her most widely seen role was in '']'', as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was '']''. Her father was governor of the ], and her uncle was ]. During the 1930s she also became the ] state women's ] champion. They had one child, Maria, now ], married to classical pianist ]. | On ], ], Cooper wed Veronica Balfe, (], ] - ] ]). Balfe was a ] ] socialite who had briefly acted under the name of ]. She appeared in the film ''No Other Woman'', but her most widely seen role was in '']'', as the woman dropped by Kong. Her third and final film was '']''. Her father was governor of the ], and her uncle was ]. During the 1930s she also became the ] state women's ] champion. They had one child, Maria, now ], married to classical pianist ]. | ||
| 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 ], ], and ]. 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 ], ], and ]. In October ], Cooper pressured Neal to have an abortion after she became pregnant with his child; she later became a ] activist.<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 ] and spent many vacations with the writer in ]. | Cooper was friends with ] and spent many vacations with the writer in ]. | ||
| ===Death from cancer=== | ===Death from cancer=== | ||
| Cooper underwent surgery for ] after it had spread to his ]. It then spread to his lungs and then, to his bones. | Cooper underwent surgery for ] in April ] after it had spread to his ]. It then spread to his lungs and then, to his bones. | ||
| Cooper was too ill to attend the ], so his close friend ] 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 ], so his close friend ] 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 13:33, 1 September 2008
For other uses, see Gary Cooper (disambiguation).| Gary Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952) | |
| Born | Frank James Cooper |
| Years active | 1925-1961 |
| Spouse | Veronica Balfe (1933-1961) |
| Awards | NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1941 Sergeant York Walk of Fame - Motion Picture 6245 Hollywood Blvd |
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 11th among males from the Classical Hollywood cinema period. In 2003, his performances as Will Kane in High Noon, Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, and 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. 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, 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. 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, moving there that same year, reasoning that he "would rather starve where it was warm, than to starve and freeze too."
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, Cooper first gained work as an actor in 1925. 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. 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, who felt it evoked the "rough, tough" nature of her native 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. 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". 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.
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.
Cooper appeared in live radio "remakes" of several of his films.
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"; 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:
- 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). In 1929 he shared a house with a gay actor named Anderson Lawler, a contract player at Paramount. Sir Cecil Beaton claimed in his diaries and autobiography to have had a long-term affair with Cooper.
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, Cooper pressured Neal to have an abortion after she became pregnant with his child; she later became a pro-life activist. Cooper's daughter Maria, when she was a little girl, famously 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 Sun Valley, Idaho.
Death from cancer
Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer in April 1960 after it had spread to his colon. It then spread to his lungs and then, 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.
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 mentioned 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, and later worked with him on The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston praised Cooper for doing his own stunts despite his age and poor health.
Filmography
Cooper appeared in both feature films and short subjects.
Feature films (1925-1932)
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Feature films (1933-1951)
|
Feature films (1952-1961)
Short subjects
|
Cooper may have been an uncredited extra in the 1923 film The Last Hour, 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.
Notes and references
- ^ Actor Gary Cooper: Testimony to House Un-American Activities Committee, from the CNN website for the Peabody Award-winning 1998 documentary Cold War,
- Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, pp. 17-18
- Current Biography 1941, pp 170-71
- ^ Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, pp. 22-23
- Current Biography 1941
- ^ Gary Cooper at IMDb
- Profile of Cooper from Turner Classic Movies
- Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, p. 25
- Selznick, David O. (2000). Memo from David O. Selznick. New York: Modern Library. pp. 172–173. ISBN 0-375-75531-4.
- GoneMovie -> Biography Gary Cooper
- Paul Donnelley (June 1, 2003). Fade To Black: A Book Of Movie Obituaries, 2nd Edition. Omnibus Press.
- Arce, Hector. Gary Cooper: An Intimate Biography, New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979, p. 252
- "Golden Age of Radio: Gary Cooper"
- Swindell, Larry Gary Cooper: The Last Hero (1981)
- Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2006)
- Meyer, Jeffrey Gary Cooper: American Hero (1998)
- Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper Off Camera: A Daughter Remembers, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, NY (1999), page 167
- Find-A-Grave profile for Gary Cooper
| Preceded byFredric March for Death of a Salesman |
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1953 for High Noon |
Succeeded bySpencer Tracy for The Actress |
| Preceded byCharles Chaplin for The Great Dictator |
NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1941 for Sergeant York |
Succeeded byJames Cagney for Yankee Doodle Dandy |
External links
- Gary Cooper at the TCM Movie Database
- Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
- Photographs of Gary Cooper from virtual-history.com
- American film actors
- Western film actors
- American silent film actors
- 1901 births
- People from Helena, Montana
- 1961 deaths
- Deaths from prostate cancer
- Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery
- English Americans
- Grinnell College people
- American Roman Catholics
- Converts to Roman Catholicism
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Academy Honorary Award recipients
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Hollywood Walk of Fame