Gary Cooper ~ 51 Films Frank James (later Gary) Cooper was born on 7 May 1901 in Helena, Montana. From the silent era through to 1961, Cooper built a solid reputation by playing strong, manly, distinctly American roles in a natural, understated manner. The son of English parents who had settled in Montana, in the years 1909-12 he lived and was educated in Dunstable, England. Otherwise, from the age of five, he spent his summers on his father's ranch in northern Montana and his winters in Helena, where for some time he was a near neighbour of Myrna Williams (later Loy). After finishing school he worked on the family ranch until 1922, when he enrolled at Grinnell College, Iowa to study art. After eighteen months of that, and some time in Chicago and Helena, fortune took his parents (and so him) to Los Angeles. After weeks of struggling to find gainful employment, he met two Montana friends, Jim Galeen and Jim Calloway, who were working as film extras and stunt riders in low-budget Westerns. They introduced him to another Montana cowboy, rodeo champion Jay "Slim" Talbot, who hooked Cooper up with a casting director. (Talbot later worked as Cooper's stuntman and stand-in for over thirty years, becoming a close friend and hunting companion in the process.) Cooper accepted work as a film extra for five dollars a day and a stunt rider for twice that amount with the intention of saving enough money to pay for a professional art course. But his appearance in 1926 Western The Winning Of Barbara Worth attracted sufficient notice that his acting career began to take off. He starred opposite silent movie star Clara Bow in Children Of Divorce (1927) and earned praise in the title role of The Virginian (1929), one of his early sound films. Throughout the 1930s, he turned in a number of strong performances in such films as A Farewell To Arms with Helen Hayes (1934), Peter Ibbetson with Ann Harding (1935) and Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town with Jean Arthur (1936). Mr. Deeds earned him a first Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Cooper continued to excel on the big screen, tackling several fact-based dramas. In Sergeant York (1941), his portrayal of World War I hero Alvin York won him a first coveted Best Actor Oscar. His next two films, playing baseball great Lou Gehrig in The Pride Of The Yankees then appearing in a film adaptation of Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls opposite Ingrid Bergman resulted in two more nominations. In 1952, Cooper took on what is now considered his signature role: that of sheriff Will Kane in High Noon. The film won four Academy Awards, including a second Best Actor win for its male lead. At the time of the presentation ceremony, Cooper was out of the country, so the Oscar was accepted on his behalf by John Wayne, who said of Coop: "He's one of the nicest fellows I know. I don't know anybody any nicer." Cooper's social life generally centred on sports, outdoor activities and dinner parties with his family and friends from the film industry, including directors Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, William Wellman and Fred Zinnemann and actors Joel McCrea, James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor. As well as hunting, Cooper enjoyed riding, fishing, skiing and, later in life, scuba diving. He never abandoned his early love for art and drawing and, over the years, he and his wife acquired a private collection of paintings including works by Renoir and Gauguin. Cooper owned several works by Picasso, whom he met in 1956. Cooper had a lifelong passion for automobiles with a collection that included a 1930 Duesenberg. Naturally reserved and introspective, he loved the solitude of outdoor activities. Not unlike his screen persona, his commun- ication style frequently consisted of long silences with an occasional "yup" and "shucks". He once said: "If others have more interesting things to say than I have, I keep quiet." According to his friends, Cooper could also be an articulate, well-informed conversationalist on topics ranging from horses, guns, and Western history to film production, 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 humour. He maintained a sense of propriety throughout his career and never misused his movie star status - never sought special treatment or refused to work with a director or leading lady. His close friend Joel McCrea recalled, "Coop never fought, he never got mad, he never told anybody off that I know of. Everybody that worked with him liked him." Twice in 1960, Cooper underwent surgery made necessary by metastasising prostate cancer. On 9 January 1961, he attended a Friars Club dinner given in his honour, hosted by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and attended by many of his industry friends. Cooper told them: "The only achievement I'm proud of is the friends I've made in this community." In mid-January, he took his family to Sun Valley for their last vacation together. He hiked with Hemingway through the snow for the last time. On 27 February, after returning to Los Angeles, Cooper learned he was dying. He later told his family: "We'll pray for a miracle, but if not, and that's God's will, that's all right too." In March he travelled to New York to record off-camera narration for NBC documentary The Real West - his last work as an actor. On 17 April, he watched the Academy Awards ceremony on TV and saw his good friend James Stewart, who had presented Cooper with his first Oscar in 1942, accept on Cooper's behalf an honorary award for lifetime achievement - his third Oscar. The dedication read: "To Gary Cooper for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry." Speaking to Cooper, an emotional Stewart said: "Coop, I want you to know I'll get it to you right away. With it goes all the friendship and affection and the admiration and deep respect of all of us. We're very, very proud of you, Coop." The following day, newspapers around the world announced that Cooper was dying. In the coming days he received numerous messages of appreciation and encouragement, including telegrams from the Pope and Queen Elizabeth and a phone call from President Kennedy. On 4 May, Cooper, in his last public statement, said: "I know that what is happening is God's will. I am not afraid of the future." He received the last rites on 12 May and died on Saturday 13 May 1961 at 12:47 pm, less than a week after his sixtieth birthday. The Man Who Was America's Hero Once upon a time, in a little period of history called World War II, America was sorely in need of heroes, specifically heroes who personified the ideals by which America defined itself: courage, humility, toughness and the chance to start small and end up big. Gary Cooper was that hero. Perhaps his friend John Wayne fit that mould too, but in a larger, more mythical way. Coop was quieter, more deliberate and unassuming, but no less powerful. If they'd made a movie in the thirties about Charles Lindbergh, surely Gary Cooper would have played him. [James Stewart finally did in 1957.] Cooper grew up on a ranch in Montana and knew early on the meaning of hard work. He also knew a thing or two about horses, which came in handy when he first went to Hollywood and found work as a stuntman in Westerns. But he didn't stay a stuntman for long. This tall, lean, strikingly handsome man had that special "It" quality every producer and director looks for and in no time he was in front of the camera. He would remain there, charming the country and making millions of housewives unsatisfied with their husbands, until his death from cancer in 1961. To say that Coop was more of a movie star than a versatile actor understates his talent. Yes, his range was somewhat limited, but he certainly knew how to use what he had, most often playing down-home, modest, decent men of few words. And he made it all look natural and easy, even when it wasn't. In 1933 Coop married a high society lady named Veronica Balfe (known to all as "Rocky") and, unlike so many Hollywood unions, they stayed together, even though his prodigious sex drive had him bedding quite a few of his co-stars along the way. Rocky bore it all with grace, though when Coop fell in love with the much younger Patricia Neal, his co-star in The Fountainhead (1949), she finally had enough and threw him out. After a three year separation the couple reunited in 1954. Reportedly, some of his wife's toney friends and family dismissed Gary as dim and unsophisticated. It's likely they weren't just snobby, but jealous - of his looks, inner calm, self- made success and famous friends (most notably, Ernest Hemingway). Or perhaps of his ability to eat a mountain of food in one sitting (a dozen eggs, a whole cherry pie) without adding a single pound to his lean 6'3” frame. Hell, we'd all be jealous of that. No one who achieved the sustained success of Gary Cooper can be called stupid.