Gary Cooper | Biography (1901-1961)

*gary cooper* (1901-1961) biography filmography rare cooper stuff books dvds posters videos bluebeard's eighth wife hanging tree high noon frank capra madeleine carroll marlene dietrich grace kelly josef von_sternberg greta garbo ava gardner jean harlow carole lombard marilyn monroe spencer tracy alfred hitchcock madeleine carroll greer garson victor saville humphrey bogart paul newman james stewart charlie chaplin fritz lang f.w. murnau erich von stroheim robert wiene richard attenborough richard burton john gielgud stewart granger cary grant jack hawkins stanley holloway trevor howard james mason john mills david niven laurence olivier eric portman dennis price richard todd peter ustinov isabelle adjani ursula andress f. barber bardot emmanuelle beart j. bisset julie christie dalle josette day britt ekland garbo rita hayworth valerie hobson margaret lockwood m. sologne	gary cooper [ g a r y c o o p e r : b i o g ] "It's not good to become a big star with your first film." - Gary Cooper biography \| filmography bluebeard's eighth wife \| hanging tree \| high noon books \| dvds \| posters \| videos rare cooper stuff gary cooper frank capra \| madeleine carroll marlene dietrich \| grace kelly \| josef von_sternberg biography More than any other actor, Gary Cooper epitomized the quiet, staunch, gallant virtues of the pioneer American as portrayed in the cinema. The Western hero of *The Virginian* (1929) and High Noon (1952) was, in principle, not so different from the rebellious adventurer of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) or the hick-from-the-sticks who becomes a crusading millionaire in Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Within a certain range, from comedy to near-documentary drama, he was a peerless film performer. Ernest Hemingway insisted he play the lead in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) because he was the perfect Hemingway hero, a man who could fight the good fight and still retain his own integrity and dignity. the virginian (1929) John Barrymore observed: 'That fellow is the world's greatest actor. He can do with no effort what the rest of us spent years trying to learn - to be perfectly natural.' Certainly he was one of the first actors who achieved an instant rapport with the camera. At the height of his popularity in the Thirties and Forties, he tended to be regarded as a 'personality' actor, who always played the same role in different settings. Later, his performances were reassessed. Because he appeared so 'natural', the public and even the critics believed he was simply playing himself. But, as countless stars have said, playing yourself is the most difficult art in the cinema. the pride of the yankees (1942) He was born in 1901, the son of British immigrants. His father was a judge who owned a ranch. Gary was christened Frank, the name Gary being bestowed on him later by an agent. They lived in Helena, Montana, which Cooper remembered when it was a goldmining town - called Last Chance Gulch. During the making of his penultimate film, *The Wreck of the Mary Deare* (1959), he reminisced about the old days: 'I saw a gunfight once; a couple of characters had had a fight, gone home and thought about it, then they met up in town and shot it out. My pal and I were standing on the street outside the saloon. Darn near got shot, too.' He never liked the idea of Westerns which were based on the legend of the fastest draw: 'Wyatt Earp, now, he hardly ever shot a man. But he frequently used to hit them between the eyes with the butt of his pistol. Don't know how he got away with it.' He learned to sit tall in the saddle because of a road accident which damaged his hip. The doctor advised him that the best therapy would be horse-riding, a pastime at which he became skilled. the last outlaw (1927) During his time at college - where he also developed his skill as a cartoonist - he thought he'd like to join the staff of a newspaper. By then his parents were living in Los Angeles, and Cooper was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard when he met a couple of chums who were playing extra roles in cheap Westerns for $10 a day. He decided to join them. From 1925 Cooper appeared briefly in countless films. Then in 1927, Clara Bow - who had been having a much-publicized romance with Cooper - managed to secure him a minor role in Wings, directed by William Wellman, where he played an easy-going but doomed young flyer in World War I. The idea of heroically dying for one's country and the philosophy that what will be will be, were easy for Cooper to convey. In barely more than five minutes screen time he communicated a magnetism that made the audience sit up and take notice. wings (1927) Paramount signed him up and he worked non-stop. As the uncompromising lawman in *The Virginian* (1929) he followed the code of good versus bad, allowing no deviation in his search for justice. It was in this film that he coined that famous misquoted phrase 'when you call me that, smile!' Cooper believed that this was his best Western although: *'I like The Plainsman, the one I did for Cecil B. Demille. But, of course, it was romanticized. Wild Bill Hickok, the character I played, wasn't really a very nice man.'* He then co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in *Morocco* (1930) but loathed Josef von Sternberg who was only concerned about how his protegee, Dietrich, would look. Hollywood really didn't know what to do with Cooper in the Thirties. Incredibly handsome, he also conveyed a toughness that was eveident in his eyes. Helen Hayes, who co-starred with him in the first film version of Hemingway's *A Farewell to Arms* (1932) - remembers him as 'the most beautiful man I have ever met'. morocco (1930) In 1936 he established a professional relationship with director Frank Capra which extended from the classic *Mr Deed Goes to Town* (1941). The characters remained true to type and true to Cooper: men of integrity faced with the nauseous machinations of big business or big politics. In 1941 Cooper won his first Oscar for his performance as the conscientious objector who becomes a war hero in Sergeant York, and in Ball of Fire (also 1941) he put his shy manner to fine use in a comedy role in which he played a meek professor researching slang who pursues a gangster's moll and finds himself in trouble. *The Fountainhead* (1949), based on Ayn Rand's novel about an idealistic architect and his fight against big business, was a turning point in his private life. Married to a New York socialite Veronica Baife since 1933, he found himself in love with his co-star Patricia Neal, but Cooper's wife - being an ardent Catholic - would not give him a divorce. In 1951 the romance, a very discreet affair, was over. In the meantime Warners starred Cooper in action films such as Task Force (1949), a routine naval drama, because they felt that the public would not accept Cooper in his usual spotless-hero guise until the adverse publicity died down. the fountainhead (1949) After a period in the doldrums, he won his second Oscar for his performance in High Noon (1952) which revitalized his screen career. He couldn't quite understand why: 'It was just a good story of the policeman who had to do a job and the townsfolk who were prepared to let him do it alone. But it was a good script and we had a fine director. Fred Zinnemann. I really didn't see it as a psychological Western.' In the last two years of his life he was surprised that he should be regarded as a Western hero, not having made many Westerns. He recalled with more affection films like The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), about an American general brought before a judicial court for accusing the war department of criminal negligence, and Ten North Frederick (1958), where the members of a dead man's family look back on the events of his life. In both films Cooper played characters wrestling with the realities of contemporary life. Before he died in 1961, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his services to the film industry. As a screen actor, Cooper had the same fundamental idea as all the great stars: 'You have to go through the mill first. It's not good to become a big star with your first film. An actor has to have lived a little.' Cooper lived a lot and died too soon. filmography 1923 - Blind Justice 1925 - The Thundering Herd - Wild Horse Mesa - The Lucky Horseshhhooe - The Vanishing American - The Eagle - Tricks - Lightnin' WWWiins (short) 1926 - Three Pals - The Enchanted Hilt >- Watch Your Wife - The Winning of Barbara Worth 1927 - It - Children of Divorce - Arizona Bound - Wings - The Last Outlaw - Nevada 1928 - Beau Sabreur - Doomsday - Legion of the Condemned - Haifa Bride - The First Kiss - Lilac Time - The Shopworn Angel 1929 - Wolf Song - Betrayal - The Virginian 1930 - Seven Days Leave/Medals - Only the Brave - Paramount on Parade - The Texan - A Man from Wyoming - The Spoilers - Morocco 1931 - Fighting Caravans - City Streets-- I Take This Woman - His Woman 1932 - Make Me a Star (guest) - Devil and the Deep - If I Had a Million - A Farewell to Arms - The Stolen Jools (guest) (short) - Voice of Hollywood (guest) (short) 1933 - Today We Live - One Sunday Afternoon - Alice in Wonderland - Design for Living 1934 - Operator 13 - Now and Forever 1935 - The Lives of a Bengal Lancer - Starrr Night at the Cocoanut Grove (guest) - The Wedding Night - Peter Ibbetson 1936 - Desire - La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (guest) - Mr Deeds Goes to Town - Hollywood Boulevard (guest) - The General Died at Dawn - The Plainsman 1937 - Lest We Forget (guest) (short) - Sooouuls at Sea 1938 - The Adventures of Marco Polo - Blueeebbeard's Eighth Wife - The Cowboy and the Lady 1939 - Beau Geste - The Real Glory 1940 - The Westerner - North West Mounted Police 1941 - Meet John Doe - Sergeant York - BBall of Fire 1942 - The Pride of the Yankees 1943 - For Whom the Bell Tolls 1944 - Memo for Joe (guest) (short) - The Story of Dr Wassell - Casanova Brown 1945 - Along Came Jones (+ prod) - Saratoga Trunk (begun in '43) 1946 - Cloak and Dagger 1947 - Variety Girl (guest) - Unconquereddd 1948 - Good Sam 1949 - The Fountainhead - Snow Carnival (guest) (short) - It's a Great Feeling (guest) - Task Force 1950 - Bright Leaf - Dallas - It's a Big Country 1951 - You're in the Navy Now/USS Teakettle - Starlift (guest) - Distant Drums 1952 - High Noon - Springfield Rifle 1953 - Return to Paradise - Blowing Wild 1954 - Garden of Evil - Vera Cruz 1955 - The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell-- Hollywood Mothers (guest) (short) 1956 - Friendly Persuasion 1957 - Love in the Afternoon 1958 - Ten North Frederick - Man of the West - The Hanging Tree 1959 - Alias Jesse James (guest) - They Came to Cordura - The Wreck of the Mary Deare 1961 - The Naked Edge - The Real West (TV doc) (narr. only) 1976 - Hollywood on Trial (featured in doc. footage) [ g a r y c o o p e r d v d s ] <MAP NAME="boxmap-p12"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="4, 237, 94, 244" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/leninimports" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/300x250.gif" width="300" height="250" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p12" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> [ g a r y c o o p e r v i d e o s ] <MAP NAME="boxmap-p12"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="4, 237, 94, 244" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/leninimports" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/300x250.gif" width="300" height="250" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p12" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- biography \| filmography \| high noon books \| dvds \| posters \| videos gary cooper frank capra \| madeleine carroll marlene dietrich \| grace kelly \| josef von_sternberg	<MAP NAME="boxmap-p10"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 440, 106, 450" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/leninimports" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x450.gif" width="120" height="450" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p10" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">

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