Gary Cooper

At 60 years old, Gary Cooper has this physical status:

Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper, 1901-61) was an American actor known for his natural, authentic, understated acting style, and screen performances. Cooper's career spanned 36 years, from 1925 to 1961, with leading roles in 84 feature films.

He was a leading film actor from the beginning of the silent film age to the end of Classical Hollywood's golden age.

Both men and women were attracted by his screen presence, and his variety of roles included appearances in the majority of major film genres.

His ability to project his own personality onto the characters he portrayed contributed to his natural and authentic appearance on film.

He had a screen persona who portrayed the ideal American hero throughout his career. Cooper started his work as a film extra and stunt rider, but he soon discovered acting roles.

With his first sound picture, The Virginian, he began as a Western hero in his early silent films.

He widened his heroic image in adventure films and dramas such as A Farewell to Arms (1932) and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).

In films like Mr., Cooper played a new kind of hero—a promoter of the common man. Deeds Goes (1936), John Doe (1941), Sergeant York (1941), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), And Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

In films such as The Fountainhead (1949) and High Noon (1952), he portrayed more mature characters in postwar films at odds with the times.

Cooper played nonviolent characters in his last films, including Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Man of the West (1958). Cooper married Veronica Balfe, a New York debutante, in 1933, and they had one child together.

Cooper's affair with Patricia Neal sparked a three-year separation that was precipitated by the marriage's break.

Cooper was nominated for Best Actor for his appearances in Sergeant York and High Noon, and he was given three more nominations, as well as the Academy Honorary Award for his career accomplishments in 1961.

He was one of the top ten film stars for 23 years and was one of the top money-making actors for 18 years.

Cooper 11th on its list of the best male stars of classic Hollywood cinema, according to the American Film Institute (AFI).

Early life

Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana, the younger of two sons of English parents Alice (née Brazier), 1873–1967) and Charles Henry Cooper (1865–1946). Arthur, his brother, was six years old at the time. Cooper's father came from Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, and became a well-known advocate, rancher, and Montana Supreme Court justice. His mother hailed from Gillingham, Kent, and Montana married Charles Charles. In 1906, Charles purchased the 600-acre (240 ha) Seven-Bar-Nine cattle ranch, just 50 miles (80 km) north of Helena near Craig, Montana. Cooper and Arthur spent their summers at the ranch and learned to ride horses, hunt, and fish. Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena.

Alice wanted her sons to have an English education, so she brought them back to England in 1909 to enroll them in Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Cooper and his brother spent time at their Houghton Regis home with William and Emily Barton. At Dunstable until 1912, Cooper studied Latin, French, and English history. Although he adapted to English school discipline and learned the essential social graces, he never fully adjusted to the rigid class system and formal Eton collars he was required to wear. On December 3, 1911, he was confirmed in the Church of England at the Church of All Saints in Houghton Regis. In August 1912, Cooper's mother accompanied her sons back to the United States, and he resumed his studies at Helena's Johnson Grammar School.

Cooper was injured in a car crash when he was 15 years old. On his doctor's advice, he returned to the Seven-Bar-Nine ranch to re-injure by horseback riding. He was left with his characteristic stiff, off-balanced walk, and a slightly angled horse-riding style. After two years as a cowboy, he returned to the family ranch to work full time as a cowboy. His father had planned for him to attend Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana, where English teacher Ida Davis advised him to concentrate on academics and participate in debating and dramatics. Davis later described her as "the woman partly responsible for [his] abandoning cowboying and going to college."

When Cooper took three art classes at Montana Agricultural College in Bozeman, he was still attending high school in 1920. Charles Marion Russell and Frederic Remington's Western paintings influenced his interest in art years before. At Ross' Hole (1910), Cooper admired and investigated Russell's Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians, which now hangs in Helena's state capitol building. He enrolled in Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1922, in order to further his art education. He did well in most of his courses, but was not accepted into the school's drama club. His drawings and watercolor paintings were on display throughout the dormitory, and he was named art editor for the college yearbook. Cooper spent 1922-1923-1923 as a tour guide on Yellowstone National Park, driving the yellow open-top buses. Despite a promising first 18 months at Grinnell, he left college in February 1924, spent a month in Chicago looking for a job as an artist, and then returned to Helena, where he sold editorial cartoons to the local Independent newspaper.

Cooper's father resigned from the Montana Supreme Court bench in autumn 1924 and moved with his wife to Los Angeles to manage the estates of two relatives, and Cooper joined his parents there in November at his father's request. He met two friends from Montana who were film extras and stunt riders in low-budget Western films on Poverty Row for a short period of time. They introduced him to another Montana cowboy, rodeo champion Jay "Slim" Talbot, who took him to see a casting director. Cooper, who was looking for a well-rounded art course, worked as a film extra for five dollars a day and as a stunt rider for ten. Cooper and Talbot became close friends and hunting companions, and Talbot continued to work as Cooper's stuntman and stand-in for over three decades.

Personal life

On Sunday, Cooper's 20-year-old New York debutante Veronica Balfe officially introduced him to his future wife, 20-year-old Veronica Balfe, at a party hosted by her uncle, art director Cedric Gibbons. She grew up on Park Avenue and attended finishing school, earning the nicknamed "Rocky" by her family and friends. Paul Shields, a Wall Street tycoon, was her stepfather. On December 15, 1933, Cooper and Rocky were quietly married at her parents' Park Avenue home. Cooper had a positive influence on him, according to his relatives, who moved away from previous indiscretions and took charge of his life. Rocky, an athlete and a lover of the outdoors, shared many of Cooper's hobbies, including riding, skiing, and skeet-shooting. She arranged their social life, and her wealth and social connections provided Cooper with access to New York high society. Cooper and his wife owned homes in Encino, Los Angeles (1933–53), Brentwood (1936–53), and Holmby Hills (1954–61), as well as a vacation home in Aspen, Colorado (1949–53).

Maria Veronica Cooper, Gary and Veronica Cooper's daughter, was born on September 15, 1937. He was a patient and devoted father, teaching Maria how to ride a bicycle, play tennis, ski, and ride horses, according to all. She accompanied her parents on their travels and was often photographed with them, sharing many of their parents' interests. She found a passion for art and drawing like her father. As a family vacationed together in Sun Valley, Idaho, Rocky's parents' country house was in Southampton, New York, and they took frequent trips to Europe. When Cooper moved out of their house, Cooper and Rocky were legally separated on May 16, 1951. They lived with their daughter for more than two years in a volatile and difficult household environment. Cooper returned to their house in November 1953 in November 1953, and formal reconciliation took place in February 1954.

Cooper had a string of romantic relationships with leading actresses, beginning with Clara Bow in 1927 and helping him get one of his first leading roles in Children of Divorce. Bow was also responsible for getting Cooper to appear in Wings, which attracted a lot of fan mail for the young actor. He had a friendship with Evelyn Brent, whom he met while filming Beau Sabre in 1928. Cooper began a passionate affair with Lupe Vélez in 1929, which was the most significant romance of his early life. Cooper had brief links with Marlene Dietrich while filming Morocco in 1930 and with Carole Lombard when filming I Take This Woman in 1931. Cooper had an affair with married Count Dorothy di Frasso during his years in Europe from 1931 to 1936, while staying at her Villa Madama near Rome.

Cooper continued faithful to his wife until 1942, when he began an affair with Ingrid Bergman during the making of For Whom the Bell Tolls. They lasted until the completion of filming Saratoga Trunk in June 1943. Cooper began an affair with Patricia Neal, his co-star, in 1948 after finishing work on The Fountainhead. They initially kept their affair private, but eventually it became an open secret in Hollywood, and Cooper's wife confronted him with the allegations, which later revealed to be true. He also admitted that he was in love with Neal and was eager to see her. Cooper and his wife were legally divorced in May 1951, but he did not request a divorce. Cooper hit Neal later this year, according to Neal, who said he arranged for her to have an abortion after she became pregnant with Cooper's child. In late December 1951, Neal and his wife began a life together. Cooper was accused of having affairs with Grace Kelly, Lorraine Chanel, and Gisèle Pascal during his three-year absence from his wife.

Cooper biographers have investigated his friendship with actor Anderson Lawler, with whom Cooper shared a house on and off for a year, while still having Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, and Lupe Vélez. Lupe Vélez once told Hedda Hopper of Vélez' affair with Cooper; if he's home after seeing Lawler, she'd sniff for Lawler's cologne. Vélez consented to Cooper's sexual conduct with Lawler, according to video by Michelle Vogel, but only as long as she, too, participates. He became involved with costume designer Irene and was, according to her, "the only man she ever loved." Irene committed suicide by leaping from the 11th floor of the Knickerbocker Hotel on a year after learning of Cooper's death from Doris Day.

According to Cooper

Cooper's twenty-year association with Ernest Hemingway began in October 1940 at Sun Valley. Hemingway used Cooper's image to create Robert Jordan's role in the book For Whom the Bell Tolls. The two women shared a passion for the outdoors, and for years they hunted duck and pheasant, and skied together in Sun Valley. Both men adored Rudyard Kipling's work – Cooper owned a copy of the poem "If—" in his dressing room – and retained Kipling's sense of boyish adventure as adults.

Hemingway said his character matched his screen persona, as well as admiring Cooper's hunting abilities and outdoor knowledge. He's just too sweet to be true," he says. They saw each other often and their friendship remained strong through the years.

Cooper's social life revolved around sports, outdoor recreation, and dinner parties with his family and friends from the film industry, including directors Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, and Fred Zinnemann, as well as actors Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Taylor. Cooper loved riding, fishing, skiing, and, later in life, scuba diving. He never regretted his early love of drawing, and over the years, he and his wife acquired a private collection of modern paintings, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Cooper owned several works by Pablo Picasso, whom he first met in 1956, as well as a collection that included a 1930 Duesenberg.

Cooper, who was naturally reserved and reflective, adored the quiet of outdoor pursuits. His communication style often consisted of long silences with occasional "yup" and "shucks," not unlike his screen persona. "If others have more interesting things to say than I do," he once said. Cooper, according to his colleagues, could also be a frank, well-informed conversationalist on topics ranging from horses, guns, and Western history to film making, sports cars, and modern art. He was modest and unpretentious, frequently downplaying his acting abilities and career accomplishments. His friends and colleagues described him as charming, well-mannered, and thoughtful, with a lively boyish sense of humor. Cooper retained a sense of propriety throughout his career and never misappropriated his movie star status – never obtained special care or refused to work with a producer or leading lady. "Coop never won; he never told anybody off that I know of," Joel McCrea said, "we never told him off, he never got mad; he never told anyone off that I know of; everyone who worked with him loved him."

Cooper, like his father, was a centrist Republican who voted for Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932, and Wendell Willkie in 1940. Cooper campaigned for Thomas E. Dewey and chastised Roosevelt for being dishonest and advocating "foreign" ideas when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a historic fourth presidential term in 1944. Cooper said in a radio address that he had paid for himself right before the election: "I disagree with the New Deal's argument that the America we love is old and worn out and finished, and we're forced to borrow foreign ideas that don't necessarily fit where they come from." He also attended a Republican rally at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which attracted 93,000 Dewey supporters.

Cooper was one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a conservative group committed to preserving the "American way of life" and opposing communism and fascism. Walter Brennan, Laraine Day, Walt Disney, Clark Gable, Hedda Hopper, Ronald Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck, and John Wayne) recommended that the US Congress look into communist activity in the motion picture industry. Cooper was summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on October 23, 1947, and if he had noticed any "communistic influence" in Hollywood.

Cooper related to remarks that the Constitution was out of date and that Congress was an unnecessary entity, saying Cooper rejected several scripts "tinged with communist views." Cooper did not identify any individuals or scripts unlike some other witnesses.

Cooper met with Carl Foreman, the film's screenwriter who had been a member of the Communist Party, in 1951 while making High Noon. Cooper put his career in jeopardy as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee's subpoena for Foreman. Cooper said in the press in favor of Foreman, who threatened Cooper with blacklisting himself and the loss of his passport if he did not walk away from the camera, but he did not walk off the film. Cooper and director Fred Zinnemann threatened to leave the film if Foreman's name was not restored if producer Stanley Kramer changed Foreman's name as screenwriter. "Cooper was the only one who tried to help," Foreman later said of all his acquaintances and associates in Hollywood. This is the only one. Cooper even offered to testify in Foreman's behalf before the committee, but character witnesses were not permitted. Foreman's scripts, which included The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Key, and The Guns of Navarone, The Bridge on the River Kwai, were among the first refusals, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Key. Because of his age, Cooper was compelled to turn them down.

Cooper was baptized in the Church of All Saints, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, England, in December 1911, and was raised in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Although he was not an observant Christian for the majority of his adult life, many of his acquaintances believed he had a strong spiritual side.

Cooper and his wife and daughter, who were devout Catholics, were on June 26, 1953, and they had an audience with Pope Pius Xiii in Rome. At the time, Cooper and his wife were still separated, but the papal visit marked the start of their gradual reconciliation. Cooper considered his death and his personal conduct in the years that followed, and began to discuss Catholicism with his family. He began attending church on a daily basis and met with their parish priest, who gave Cooper spiritual assistance. Cooper was baptized as a Catholic on April 9, 1959, before a small group of family and acquaintances at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, after several months of research.

Source

Career

Cooper began his film career in early 1925 in silent films including The Thundering Herd and Wild Horse Mesa with Jack Holt, Riders of the Purple Sage and The Lucky Horseshoe with Tom Mix, and The Trail Rider with Buck Jones. He appeared in numerous Poverty Row studios, but also the newly emerging major studios, Famous Players-Lasky, and Fox Film Corporation. Cooper discovered the stunt work, which often injured horses and riders, while his refined horsemanship led to steady employment in Westerns, but it was "tough and cruel." Cooper hired casting director Nan Collins to assist with a screen test and move beyond stunt casting and acting roles. Knowing that other actors were using the term "Frank Cooper," Collins suggested that her first name be changed to "Gary" after her hometown of Gary, Indiana. Cooper recognized the name right away.

Cooper also appeared in a number of non-Western films, including as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (1925) and as a flood survivor in the Johnstown Flood (1926). He started to land credited roles in films such as Tricks (1925), in which he played the film's villain, and the short film Lightnin' Wins (1926). He began to be noticed by major film studios as a featured actor. Cooper signed a fifty-dollar a week deal with Samuel Goldwyn Productions on June 1, 1926.

Cooper's first film role was in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), starring Ronald Colman and Vilma Bány, in which he plays a young engineer who helps a rival suitor save the woman she loves and her town from an imminent dam disaster. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, Cooper's lived among the Montana cowboys gave his appearance a "instinctive authenticity." The film was a huge success. Cooper was deemed a "dynamic new personality" and a future celebrity by critics. Goldwyn rushed to give Cooper a long-term contract, but he turned down a better offer: a five-year deal with Jesse L. Lasky of A five-year deal with For $175 a week, he was hoping for a lucrative one. Cooper in 1927, with support from Clara Bow, landed high-profile roles in Children of Divorce and Wings (both 1927), the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Cooper appeared in his first film roles in Arizona Bound and Nevada, which were both directed by John Waters.

In The Legion of the Condemned and The First Kiss (both 1928), Cooper and Fay Wray teamed up, promoting them as the studio's "glorious young lovers." Audiences were not particularly interested in their on-screen chemistry. Cooper's acting skills increased with each new film, and his fame continued to rise, particularly among female movie-goers. During this period, he was making more than $100,000 per film and receiving a thousand fan letters a week. The studio positioned Cooper in Beau Sabreur, Florence Vidor, Doomsday, and Esther Ralston in Half a Bride, both 1928) in an attempt to cash in on Cooper's increasing following. Cooper made Lilac Time (1928), his first film with synchronized music and sound effects, around the same time. It became one of 1928's most commercially successful films.

Cooper made a big movie star in 1929 with the introduction of The Virginian (1929), a Victor Fleming and co-starred Mary Brian and Walter Huston. The Virginian, based on Owen Wister's most popular novel, was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honor and helped establish several of the Western movie style's oldest films. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, the romantic picture of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero who embodied male liberty, confidence, and reverence was largely made by Cooper in the film. Cooper, unlike other silent film actors who had trouble adapting to the new sound medium, grew naturally, with his "deep and clear" and "pleasantly drawling" voice, which was perfectly suited for the characters he portrayed on film, according to Meyers. Paramount starred Cooper in several Westerns and wartime dramas, including Only the Brave, The Texan, A Man From Wyoming, and The Spoilers, all released in 1930, in an attempt to cash in on Cooper's increasing fame. For the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on May 24, 1930, Norman Rockwell depicted Cooper as The Texan.

In Josef von Sternberg's film Morocco (also 1930) with Marlene Dietrich in her introduction to American audiences, one of Cooper's finest performances in his early career was his portrayal of a sullen legionnaire. Von Sternberg honed his attention on Dietrich and dismissed Cooper dismissively during development. Tensions in German were put to a halt after von Sternberg yelled directions at Cooper in German. "If you intend to work in this world, you'd better get to the language we use here," the 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) actor picked him up by the collar. Through the set's tensions, Cooper delivered "one of his best performances," according to Thornton Delehanty of the New York Evening Post.

Cooper, who was returning to the Western genre in Zane Grey's Battle Caravans (1931), co-starring Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas, portraying a westerner who is in battle with big-city gangsters in order to save the woman he loves. Cooper came to an end this year with appearances in two unsuccessful films: I Take This Woman (also 1931) with Carole Lombard and His Woman with Claudette Colbert. Cooper was exhausted and infirm, suffering from anemia and jaundice as a result of the demands and pressures of making ten films in two years. He had lost thirty pounds (fourteen kilograms) during that time, felt lonely, isolated, and bedevastated by his sudden fame and success. Cooper left Hollywood in May 1931 and sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he stayed for the next year.

Cooper spent time in Europe working with Countess Dorothy di Frasso, how to read Italian and French menus, and how to socialize among Europe's upper and upper classes. She led him on a ten-week big-game hunting safari in East Africa, where he was credited with more than 60 killings, including two lions, a rhinoceros, and several antelopes, after leading him through the great art museums and galleries of Italy. Cooper's safari experience in Africa had a major influence on him, and he heightened his love of the wilderness. Following his return to Europe, he and the countess embarked on a Mediterranean cruise of the Italian and French Rivieras. A healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood in April 1932 and negotiated a new deal with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4,000 a week, and script approval.

Cooper appeared in A Farewell to Arms, the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel, after finishing Devil and the Deep with Tallulah Bankhead to fulfill his old deal. Helen Hayes, a leading New York theatre actor and Academy Award winner, and Adolphe Menjou, co-starring Kevin Cooper, the film stars Cooper in one of his most original and entertaining roles. During World War I, Cooper met an American ambulance driver who was in love with an English nurse. Critics lauded his ardent and emotional appearance, and the film became one of the year's most commercially profitable films. Cooper appeared in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy film Design for Living, based on the popular No.l Coward play, in 1933. We Live with Joan Crawford and One Sunday Afternoon with Fay Wray appeared in Today We Live with Joan Crawford and One Sunday Afternoon. The film, starring Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March, was a box office hit, ranked as one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1933. Both three lead actors, March, Cooper, and Hopkins, all got notice from this film because they were all at the height of their careers. Cooper's debut as an American artist playing with his playwright friend for the love of a beautiful woman was praised for its versatility and demonstrated his genuine ability to do light comedy. In August 1933, Cooper changed his name legally to "Gary Cooper."

Cooper was loaned out to MGM for the Civil War drama film Operator 13, starring Marion Davies about a beautiful Union spy falling in love with a Confederate soldier. Despite Richard Boles' nimble direction and George J. Folsey's lavish cinematography, the film did not do well at the box office.

Cooper appeared in his first film by director Henry Hathaway, Now and Forever, with Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. In the film, he plays a snarky guy who tries to sell his daughter to the relatives who raised her, but is eventually defeated by the sweet girl. Cooper, who was both on and off camera, was captivated by Temple's intelligence and charm. The film was a box-office hit.

Cooper was loaned out to Samuel Goldwyn Productions to appear in King Vidor's romantic film The Wedding Night with Anna Sten, who was being marketed as "another Garbo" in the following year. Cooper leads an alcoholic novelist who retainssss his family's New England farm, where he meets and falls in love with a stunning Polish neighbor. According to biographer Larry Swindell, Cooper gave a performance of surprising range and depth. Despite generally positive reviews, the film was not well-received by American audiences, and it may have been offended by the film's portrayal of an extramarital affair and its tragic conclusion.

Cooper appeared in two Henry Hathaway films, the melodrama Peter Ibbetson with Ann Harding about a man trapped in a childhood dream world and the Bengal Lancer's Lives of a Battered British officer and his men who defend their stronghold in Bengal against rebellious local tribes. Though the former, based on the survivor of the surrealists, became more popular in Europe than in the United States, the latter was nominated for seven Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and profitable adventure films. Hathaway had the most admiration for Cooper's acting abilities, even calling him "the greatest actor of all of them."

In 1936, Cooper's career took a dramatic turn. Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since making Frank Borzage's romantic comedy film Desire with Marlene Dietrich at Paramount, in which he was regarded by some modern commentators as one of his finest performances, to make Frank Capra's Mr. With Jean Arthur, we go to town for Columbia Pictures. Cooper plays Longfellow Deeds, a quiet, innocent writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, and he flies to New York to face a world of mistrust and deceit. Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin were able to create a new breed of "folk hero" for the common man, as a mark of honesty, courage, and goodness. Capra observed, despite being adamant about Cooper's impact on the character and the film.

Both Desire and Mr. Deeds opened in April 1936 to critical praise and were among the country's biggest box-office hits. Cooper was "proving himself one of the best light comedians in Hollywood," Frank Nugent wrote in The New York Times. Mr.'s role in Mr.'s appearance was lauded. Cooper, Deeds, received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

In 1936, Cooper appeared in two other Paramount films. In Lewis Milestone's adventure film The General Died at Dawn, he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who assists the peasants in their fight against the draconian draconian tyrant's brutal warlord. The film, written by playwright Clifford Odets, was a critical and commercial success.

Wild Bill Hickok appears in Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling frontier epic The Plainsman, his first of four films with the director, in a highly fictionalized interpretation of the American western frontier's opening. Due in large part to Jean Arthur's definitive portrayal of Calamity Jane and Cooper's inspired portrayal of Hickok as an enigmatic figure of "deepening mythic substance," the film was a bigger box-office hit than its predecessor. Cooper appeared on the Motion Picture Herald's survey of top ten film stars for the first time in that year, where he would remain for the next twenty-three years.

When Cooper decided a new deal for Cooper that would increase his salary to $8,000 a week, he was a fan of $150,000 per film. Paramount brought suit against Goldwyn and Cooper, and the court found that Cooper's new Goldwyn contract gave him enough time to also respect his Paraphrasedout agreement. Cooper continued to film with both studios, and by 1939, the US Treasury declared that Cooper was the country's highest wage earner, earning $482,819 (equivalent to $9.41 million in 2021).

Cooper appeared in only one photograph in 1937, Henry Hathaway's adventure film Souls at Sea, in contrast to his output the previous year. Cooper referred to it as his "most picture" after it was "most thrilling and almost thrilling." I was certainly good." He appeared in Archie Mayo's biographical film The Adventures of Marco Polo in 1938. The film, which was plagued by production delays and a poor screenplay, became Goldwyn's biggest failure to date, losing $700,000. Cooper played several important roles, including Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, during this time. Cooper was first choice for the role by producer David O. Selznick. Cooper made several approaches to the actor, but he had reservations about the project and didn't seem to be suited to the role. "It was one of the finest roles ever offered in Hollywood," Cooper later said. But I said no. I didn't feel myself terribly dashing, and when Clark Gable's role was portrayed to perfection, I knew I was correct."

In Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Claudette Colbert, Cooper returned to Paramount's more familiar setting. Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and begs her to be his eighth wife in the film. Despite Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder's clever screenplay and solid performances by Cooper and Colbert, American audiences had a difficult time accepting Cooper as a shallow philanderer. It was only successful in the European box office market.

Cooper appeared in H.C. Potter's romantic comedy The Cowboy and the Lady with Merle Oberon, about a sweet-natured rodeo cowboy who falls in love with the wealthy daughter of a presidential candidate's wealthy daughter, despite her being a poor, hardworking lady's maid. Three writers and several eminent screenwriters' attempts to save what seemed to be a good vehicle for Cooper. The film was Cooper's fourth straight box-office loss in the United States, although more profitable than its predecessor.

Cooper was more aware of the roles he accepted and made four highly appreciated big-scale adventure and cowboy films over the next two years. He appears in William A. Wellman's adventure film Beau Geste (1939) as one of three brave English brothers who join the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara to fight local tribes. Beau Geste produced Cooper with stunning sets, exotic locations, high-spirited combat, and a role suited to his personality and screen persona in the same Mojave Desert locations as the original 1926 version with Ronald Colman. This was Cooper's last film in the

In Henry Hathaway's "The Real Glory (1939), he joins a select group of American Army troops to the Philippines to assist the Christian Filipinos in their fight against Muslim radicals. Many film critics praised Cooper's appearance, including author and film critic Graham Greene, who admitted that he "never acted better."

Cooper in William Wyler's The Westerner (1940), with Walter Brennan and Doris Davenport, about a drifting cowboy who protects homesteaders against Roy Bean, a violent judge known as the "law west of the Pecos," a former judge. When writing the script, screenwriter Niven Busch relied on Cooper's extensive Western history. The film received favorable feedback and performed well at the box office, with reviewers lauding the two lead actors' performances. Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's adventure film North West Mounted Police (1940), the first all-Technicolor film. Cooper stars in the film a Texas Ranger who seeks a Texas Ranger who joins the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who are after the same man, a leader of the North-West Rebellion. Although the film was not as popular with critics as its predecessor, it was still another box-office success, this time the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1940.

Cooper's prime years as an actor appeared in the early 1940s. He appeared in five critically acclaimed and well-known films that produced some of his best performances in a short time. "I'm fine, Frank, I don't need a script," Cooper said when Frank Capra offered him the lead role in Meet John Doe before Robert Riskin even wrote the script. Cooper plays Long John Willoughby, a down-and-out bush-league pitcher hired by a newspaper to pretend to be a man who commits suicide on Christmas Eve to protest all the hypocrisy and corruption in the nation. Meet John Doe was regarded as a "national event" by some commentators, with Cooper appearing on the front page of Time magazine on March 3, 1941. Howard Barnes called Cooper's appearance a "completely convincing portrayal" and lauded his "most realistic portrayal" in his New York Herald Tribune essay, which comes as a result of such authority. "Gary Cooper, of course, is 'John Doe' to the life and is non-aggressive, but a real tiger when aroused," Bosley Crowther said in the New York Times.

Cooper and his longtime friend Howard Hawks appeared in two films together this year. In the biographical film Sergeant York, Cooper portrays war hero Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War I. York chronicles the early backwoods days in Tennessee, his religious conversion and subsequent piety, his role as a conscient observer, and then his heroic efforts at the Battle of the Argonne Forest, which earned him the Medal of Honor. Cooper was anxious and uncertain about becoming a living hero, so he travelled to Tennessee to visit York at his house, and the two quiet men developed an immediate rapport and discovered they had a lot in common. Cooper performed a New York Herald Tribune article "one of extraordinary courage and versatility" inspired by York's encouragement, and that Archer Winston of the New York Post called his work "one of his finest." Cooper was given the Distinguished Citizenship Medal by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for his "important contribution to the promotion of patriotism and patriotism" after the film's release. Cooper admired Cooper's work and helped promote Warner Bros' film. Sergeant York was named for eleven Academy Awards this year, making it the year's best-grossing film of the year. Cooper said, "It was Sergeant Alvin York who received the Academy Award for Best Actor from his colleague James Stewart." I've been in the industry for sixteen years, and I've often wished I'd have one of these. That's all I can say... I always had a good speech when I was dreaming."

Cooper and Howard Hawks were able to produce the romantic comedy Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck last year. Cooper plays a timid linguistics professor who leads a team of seven scholars who are compiling an encyclopedia in the film. Stanwyck's flirtatious burlesque stripper Sugarpuss O'Shea blows the smoke off their staid life of books while researching slang. Cooper had the opportunity to test his light comedy skills in the film version by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. Howard Barnes, a New York Herald Tribune writer, wrote that Cooper did the job with "great knowledge and humor emphasis" and that his appearance was "utterly delightful." Ball of Fire was one of the year's best-grossing films, and Cooper's fourth straight picture to make the top ten, despite being small in scale.

Cooper's last film appearance under his Goldwyn contract was in 1942. Lou Gehrig, a baseball player who set a record with the New York Yankees for playing in 2,130 consecutive games, is the subject of Sam Wood's biographical film The Pride of the Yankees. Cooper, who had died of ALS in the previous year (now commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease"), was hesitant to participate in the seven-time All-Star tournament. Cooper was not left-handed like Gehrig, despite the challenges of successfully portraying such a well-known and nationally known figure.

Cooper accepted the role after Gehrig's widow visited him and expressed her displeasure with her husband's life, including his early love of baseball, his rise to fame, his love for marriage, and his bout with cancer, which culminated in his farewell address at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, before 62,000 fans. Cooper figured out the physical movements of a baseball player and created a fluid, believable swing. The handedness issue was addressed by reversing the printing for those batting scenes. The film was one of the year's best ten pictures, receiving eleven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's third).

Paramount invested $150,000 for the film rights with the express intention of casting Cooper in the lead role of Robert Jordan, an American explosives specialist who fights alongside the Republican faithfulists during the Spanish Civil War. Cecil B. DeMille, the original director, had been replaced by Sam Wood, who brought in Dudley Nichols for the screenplay. Ingrid Bergman was brought in to replace ballerina Zorina as the female lead in late 1942, a change that Cooper and Hemingway welcomed. Bergman and Cooper's love scenes were "rapturous" and passionate. Both actors, according to Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune, delivered "the authentic stature and authority of actors." Although the film distorted the novel's original political visions and meaning, For Whom the Bell Tolls was a critical and commercial success, earning ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's fourth).

Cooper did not serve in the military during WWII due to his age and sickness, but he joined the war effort by entertaining troops. He travelled to military hospitals in San Diego in June 1943 and often appeared at the Hollywood Canteen, feeding the servicemen. Cooper undertook a 23,000-kilometer (37,000 km) tour of the South West Pacific in late 1943 with actress Una Merkel and Phyllis Brooks, as well as accordionist Andy Arcari.

The group, which was traveling on a B-24A Liberator bomber, toured the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Queensland, Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Brisbane, where General Douglas MacArthur told Cooper he was watching Sergeant York when Japanese bombs started falling in a Manila theater – New Guinea, Jayapura, and all Solomon Islands.

The troops were often sent the same sparse living conditions and K-rations as the soldiers. Cooper met with the servicemen and women, visited military hospitals, introduced his admired coworkers, and participated in occasional skits. Cooper's moving recitation of Lou Gehrig's farewell address brought the show to a close. As he returned to the United States, he visited military hospitals around the country. Cooper later called his time with the troops the "most emotional experience" of his life.

Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's wartime adventure film The Story of Dr. Wassell – his third film with the director. Cooper plays Corydon M. Wassell, an American doctor and missionary, who leads a group of wounded sailors through Java's jungles to safety. Despite poor feedback, Dr. Wassell was one of the year's best-grossing films. Cooper, the Goldwyn and Paramount companies' terms, has come to an end, and he formed International Pictures, Leo Spitz, William Goetz, and Nunnally Johnson. Sam Wood's debut was the debut of his fledgling studio's romantic comedy Casanova Brown starring Teresa Wright. A man discovers his soon-to-beex wife is pregnant with his child even as he is about to marry another woman. The film received poor reviews, with the New York Daily News calling it "delightful nonsense" and Bosley Crowther critiquing Cooper's "somewhat apparent and ridiculous clowning" in The New York Times. The film was barely profitable.

Cooper appeared in and produced Stuart Heisler's Western comedy Along Came Jones with Loretta Young for International in 1945. Cooper plays Melody Jones, a young cowboy who is mistaken for a ruthless killer in this lighthearted parody of his previous heroic image. Audiences embraced Cooper's character, and the film was one of the year's best box-office pictures, a testament to Cooper's still relevant audience appeal. It was also the world's biggest financial success during its brief existence before being sold off to Universal Studios in 1946.

Cooper's work in the postwar years turned in new directions as American society was shifting. Although he still did traditional heroic roles, his films today were less dependent on his heroic screen persona and more on novel tales and exotic locales. Cooper appeared in Sam Wood's nineteenth-century period drama Saratoga Trunk, about a Texas cowboy and his friendship with a beautiful fortune-hunter. Due to the increased demand for war films, the film's release was postponed for two years. Despite poor reviews, Saratoga Trunk's 1946 film Cloak and Dagger, about a mild-mannered physics professor recruited by the OSS during World War II to investigate the German atomic program. Cooper, who was based on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was uneasy with the role and unable to convey the character's "inner sense." The film received poor feedback and was deemed out of place in a box-office loss. Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's epic adventure film Unconquered (1947), about a Virginia militiaman who protects settlers against an unscrupulous gun trader and hostile Indians on the Western frontier during the eighteenth century. The film received mixed feedback, but James Agee, a long-serving DeMille analyst, said the film had "some authentic taste of the period." Cooper's last four films, which earned him more than $300,000 (equal to $3,640,686 today), was the actor's most lucrative, earning him over $300,000 (equivalent to $3,640,686) in salary and percentage of profits. Unconquered will be his last unqualified box-office triumph for the next five years.

Cooper sold his company to Universal Studios in 1948, after making Leo McCarey's romantic comedy Good Sam, earning him script and director approval and a guaranteed $295,000 (equivalent to $3,327,126 today) per image. King Vidor's drama The Fountainhead (1949) with Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey was his first film under new supervision. Cooper portrays an idealistic and uncompromising architect who struggles to keep his reputation and individualism in the face of societal pressures to conform to established minimums. The film, based on Ayn Rand's novel, also wrote the screenplay, focuses on her philosophy and criticizes collectivism's theories while still promoting individualism's virtues. Cooper was hopelessly miscast in the role of Howard Roark, according to most commentators. Bosley Crowther's book, "Mr. Friend," concluded the New York Times in his review. "Deeds are out of his element." Cooper returned to his role in Delmer Daves' war drama Task Force (1949), about a former admiral who reminisces about his time as a naval aviator and his involvement in aircraft carriers' development. Cooper's film, as well as the US Navy's Technicolor newsreel video, made it one of Cooper's most popular during this period. Cooper's fourth poorly received film in the next two years were four: Michael Curtiz' period drama Bright Leaf (1950), Stuart Heisler's Western melodrama Dallas (1951), and Raoul Walsh's Western action film Distant Drums (1951).

Fred Zinnemann's Western drama High Noon (1952) with Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado for United Artists was Cooper's most important film during the war years. Cooper plays Will Kane, a former sheriff who is planning to leave town on his honeymoon, after learning that an outlaw he helped put away and his three henchmen are returning to seek their revenge. Kane, who was unable to get the help of the terrified townspeople and abandoned by his teenage bride, remains to face the outlaws alone. Cooper was in poor health and in pain from stomach ulcers during the filming, and he was in pain from stomach ulcers. According to biographer Hector Arce, his ravaged face and agony in certain scenes "photographed as self-doubt," contributed to his performance's success. High Noon, one of the first "adult" Westerns to explore moral hebria, has received raves for its artistry, with Time magazine placing it in the ranks of Stagecoach and The Gunfighter. Cooper was "at the top of his form," according to Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, and John McCarten, a New Yorker, said that Cooper was never more efficient. The film earned $3.75 million in the United States and $18 million worldwide. Cooper, following his friend James Stewart's example, accepted a lower salary in exchange for a share of the company's earnings and ended up earning $600,000. Cooper's understated performance was widely lauded, winning him his second Academy Award for Best Actor.

Cooper appeared in André de Toth's Civil War drama Springfield Rifle (1952), a classic Warner Bros. film that was overshadowed by its predecessor's success, and he made four films outside of the United States. Cooper portrays an American wanderer who saves a Polynesian island from the puritanical reign of a misguided pastor in Mark Robson's memoir Return to Paradise (1953). During the three-month location shoot on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa, Cooper suffered from spartan living conditions, long hours, and poor health. Despite the film's stunning cinematography, it got poor feedback. In Mexico, Cooper's next three films were shot. Hugo Fregonese's adventure film Blowing Wild (1953), he plays a wildcatter in Mexico who has to deal with an oil company executive and his unscrupulous wife with whom he once had an affair.

Cooper appeared in Henry Hathaway's Western drama Garden of Evil, starring Susan Hayward, about three soldiers of fortune in Mexico sent to save a woman's husband. Burt Lancaster and Robert Aldrich's Western adventure Vera Cruz in the same year. Cooper plays in the film An American adventurer recruited by Emperor Maximilian I to escort a countess to Vera Cruz during the Mexican Revolution of 1866. All these films received critical feedback, but they did a good job at the box-office. Cooper's salary was $1.4 million, and he was a percent of the total gross for his work in Vera Cruz.

Cooper suffered with health issues during this time. During the filming of Blowing Wild, he sustained a serious shoulder injury as a result of metal fragments from a dynamited oil well. During footage of Vera Cruz, he revived his hip injury from a horse and was quickly killed if Lancaster fired his rifle too close, as the wading from the empty shell peeked his clothing.

Cooper appeared in Otto Preminger's 1955 biographical war drama The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, a World War I general who tried to warn government officials of the importance of air power, was court-martialized after the War Department was blamed for a string of air accidents. Cooper was miscast, according to some commentators, and his dull, tight appearance did not reflect Mitchell's dynamic and caustic personality. In William Wyler's Civil War drama Friendly Persuasion with Dorothy McGuire, Cooper was more effective as a gentle Indiana Quaker in 1956. The film, like Sergeant York and High Noon, explores the nexus between religious pacifism and civic responsibility. Cooper received his second Golden Globe Award for his work as Best Motion Picture Actor in his second year. The film, which had been nominated for six Academy Awards, was given the Palme d'Or at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and went on to gross $8 million around the world.

Cooper travelled to France in 1956 to make Billy Wilder's romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon with Audrey Hepburn and Maurice Chevalier. Cooper, a middle-aged American playboy in Paris, pursues and eventually falls in love with a much younger woman in the film. Given that Cooper was simply too old for the role, despite receiving some good reviews – including Bosley Crowther, who praised the film's "charming performances" – most reviewers agreed that he was still too young for the role. Although audiences may not have admired Cooper's glorious screen image, portraying an old roué trying to seduce an innocent young girl, the film was nevertheless a box-office hit. Cooper appeared in Philip Dunne's romantic comedy Ten North Frederick the year after. Cooper, a young roommate of John O'Hara's book, plays an attorney whose life is ruined by a double-crossing politician and his own unethical affair with his daughter's teenage roommate. Although Cooper brought "conviction and controlled anesthesia" to his appearance, according to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, it wasn't enough to save what Bosley Crowther described as a "hapless film."

Cooper continued to work in action films despite his continuing health issues and multiple surgeries for ulcers and hernias. He appeared in Anthony Mann's Western drama Man of the West (1958) with Julie London and Lee J. Cobb about a reformed outlaw and killer who is compelled to confront his criminal history when the train he's riding in is delayed by his former gang members. Cooper's "most pathological Western" has been dubbed "impotent rage, sexual humiliation, and sadness. Cooper, a biographer who suffered with moral problems in his personal life, "understands the annoyance of a character struggling to keep his image"... "and] gave a realistic picture of a befuddled and wounded man." The film, which was mainly ignored by scholars at the time, is now well-regarded by film scholars, and is considered Cooper's last great film.

Cooper formed Baroda Productions, a venture that made three rare films about redemption in 1959 after his Warner Bros. contract ended. Cooper is a frontier doctor who rescues a criminal from a lynch crowd and then attempts to capitalize on his sordid history in Delmer Daves' Western drama The Hanging Tree. Cooper's "powerful and convincing" portrayal of an emotionally strained man whose need to conquer others is changed by the love and sacrifice of a woman. In Robert Rossen's historical epic They Came to Cordura with Rita Hayworth, he plays an army officer found guilty of cowardice and given the degrading task of selecting soldiers for the Medal of Honor during the Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916.

Although Cooper received glowing feedback, Variety and Films in Review felt that he was too young for the role. Cooper, a disgraced merchant marine officer who decides to remain aboard his sinking freight ship in order to show that the ship was deliberately cut down and to keep his good name. The film was physically demanding like its two predecessors. Cooper, a certified scuba diver, did the majority of his own submerged scenes. In both of Cooper's roles, writer Jeffrey Meyers said that he conveyed a sense of loss and longing for revenge – what Joseph Conrad called the "struggles of an individual attempting to save from the fire his notion of what his moral identity should be."

Career assessment and legacy

Cooper's career spanned thirty-six years, from 1925 to 1961. He appeared in eighty-four feature films in which he appeared in a leading role. He was a major movie star from the beginning of the silent film era to the end of Classical Hollywood's golden age. His natural and authentic acting style attracted both men and women, and his extensive number of appearances included films in most major movie genres, including Westerns, war films, science fiction, detective films, romance films, and romantic comedy films. For twenty-three years, he appeared in the Motion Picture Herald's poll of top ten film celebrities from 1936 to 1958. Cooper was one of the top money-making celebrities for eighteen years, appearing in the top ten in 1936–37, 1941–49, and 1951–57, according to Quigley's annual survey. In 1953, he ranked first on the charts. Cooper is fourth in Quigley's list of all-time money-making celebrities, after John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Tom Cruise. The estimates at his death were that his films earned more than $200 million (equivalent to $1.81 billion in 2021).

Cooper portrayed Westerners, soldiers, pilots, sailors, and explorers in more than half of his feature films; all men of action. In the remainder, he portrayed doctors, researchers, designers, engineers, architects, clerks, and baseball players. Cooper's heroic film image morphed with each stage of his career. (The Virginian) He played the young naive hero unsure of his moral position and trusting in simple virtues in his early films (The Virginian). His Western screen persona was replaced by a more mature hero in adventure films and dramas after being a major celebrity (A Farewell to Arms). During his career (1936 to 1943), he was a pioneer of the common man who would sacrifice himself for others. (Mr. ). Deeds, Meet John Doe, and Whom the Bell Tolls (whom the Bell Tolls).

Cooper experimented with larger sizes on his screen image, now reflecting a hero who is increasingly at odds with the world who must face adversity alone (The Fountainhead and High Noon). Cooper's hero rejects the violence of the past, and he hopes to regain lost respect and find hope (Friendly Persuasion and Man of the West). The screen persona he created and maintained throughout his career portrayed the ideal American hero – a tall, handsome, and sincere man of steadfast integrity who emphasized action over intellect – who brought together the romantic lover's fiery, adventurer, and the common man.

Cooper was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6243 Hollywood Boulevard on February 6, 1960, for his contributions to the film industry. He was voted a star on the sidewalk outside the Ellen Theater in Bozeman, Montana.

Cooper was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters in recognition of his contributions to the arts on May 6, 1961. He was formally named with the David di Donatello Special Award in Italy on July 30, 1961, for his career accomplishments.

Cooper was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 1966. He was inducted into the Utah Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame in 2015. Cooper was ranked 11th on the American Film Institute's list of the top 25 male stars of classic Hollywood. Will Kane, Lou Gehrig, and Sergeant York were three of his characters to be included on AFI's list of the top 100 greatest heroes and villains, with all of them as heroes. "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth today," Lou Gehrig says. "The thirty-eighth best movie quote of all time" is ranked by AFI as the thirty-eighth best movie quote of all time.

Cooper's image of the ideal American hero has been preserved in his film performances more than half a century since his death, according to biographer Jeffrey Meyers. Charlton Heston once wrote, "He predicted the kind of man Americans would like to be, probably more than any actor who has ever lived."

Gary Cooper, based on Elmore Leonard's drawings and characters, appears in the TV series Justified, as the man U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant, aspires to be. Marshall Givens asks Marshall Givens how he thinks his controversial plan to kill a criminal will work, he responds: "Why not?" says Marshall Givens. Gary Cooper "worked for Gary Cooper."

Gary Cooper has been referred to many times in the critically acclaimed television series The Sopranos, with protagonist Tony Soprano asking, "What happened to Gary Cooper?" "When describing his anxiety to his therapist, the brave, silent type..."

Cooper is mentioned in the line "dress up like a million dollar trooper/Tryin'' difficult to look like Gary Cooper, Super Duper" in the 1930s hit song "Puttin' On the Ritz." A new version of Cooper's death was released in 1983 by Taco; the original songs were retained, including the references to Cooper.

Cooper is "spotted" by Holden Caulfield in chapter ten of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, to distract a woman he is dancing with.

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