Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Gary Cooper (May 7, 1901 - May 13, 1961) was an
United States|American film actor whose career
spanned the from the 1920s up until the year of
his death. 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 Western
movie|Westerns he made. 

During career, Cooper received five Academy Award
nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor|Best
Actor, winning twice. He also received an Honorary
Award from the Academy in 1961.

Cooper was born Frank James Cooper in Helena,
Montana, but lived in England with his mother and
attended school there for seven years. 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 near him. 

In 1924 Cooper moved to Los Angeles with the
intention of becoming a commercial artist, 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.  In 1952, Cooper won an
Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as
Marshal Will Kane in High Noon, considered his
finest role.

After high-profile love affairs with actresses
Clara Bow and Lupe Velez, and the American-born
socialite-spy Countess Carlo Dentice di Frasso
(nÊe Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, the most famous
person to hail from Watertown, New York), formerly
wife of British aviator Claude Grahame-White,
Cooper finally got married. He married 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 (a.k.a.
Maria Cooper Janis), and eventually his wife
persuaded Cooper to become a Roman Catholic.
However, before he converted, while he was married
to Balfe, a marriage which lasted until his death,
Cooper did have affairs with several famous
co-stars, including Grace Kelly and Patricia Neal.
Cooper's daughter, Maria, famously spit at Neal
when she was a little girl, but many years later
Patricia Neal and Maria Cooper reconciled and are
now friends.

In 1961, Cooper died of lung cancer at age 60 and
was interred in the Sacred Heart Cemetery,
Southampton, New York|Southampton, New York.

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.

==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 (1937)
*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)
*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 movie)|Return to
Paradise (1953)
*Blowing Wild (1953)
*Boom on Paris (1954)
*Garden of Evil (1954)
*Vera Cruz (movie) (1954)
*Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Premiere (1955)
(short subject)
*The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
*Friendly Persuasion (movie)|Friendly Persuasion
(1956)
*Love in the Afternoon (1957)
*Glamourous 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)

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0000011|name=Gary Cooper
* http://www.thegoldenyears.org/cooper.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Gary Cooper