Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper (1901-1961), American motion-picture actor, known for his portrayals of the quintessential American hero: calm, soft-spoken, and slow to anger, but single-mindedly dedicated to justice. Tall, lanky, and taciturn, Cooper came to symbolize the man of integrity pitted against a hostile world.

Born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, of English parents, he was first educated at an English public school and then at Wesleyan College in Helena and at Grinnell College in Iowa. In 1924 Cooper began playing small parts in silent films. He first gained recognition for his role in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), with Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. When he was given the lead role in The Virginian in 1929, Cooper became a star of talking pictures and established the stalwart, reticent persona he was to portray for the next 30 years. Although he is still best known for his simple western heroes, he was also comfortable playing romantic roles and showed a flair for sophisticated comedy. Over the course of his more than 90 films he played such varied characters as a French legionnaire, a baseball player, a gunman, a working man, a professor, a Quaker farmer (see Friends, Society of), and an architect. On occasion Cooper was loaned to other studios, but most of his films were made at Paramount Pictures, where he worked consistently with other important stars and frequently for major directors.

The 1930s were Cooper's most prolific single decade, by the end of which he was the highest-grossing star in Hollywood. His films of this period include Morocco (1930; opposite Marlene Dietrich), A Farewell to Arms (1932; opposite Helen Hayes), Design for Living (1933; directed by Ernst Lubitsch), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935; see Bengal), The General Died at Dawn (1936), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936; directed by Frank Capra), The Plainsman (1936; directed by Cecil B. DeMille), The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938; see Marco Polo), and Beau Geste (1939). His roles of the next two decades were at least as varied, if gradually less frequent: The Westerner (1940), Meet John Doe (1941), Sergeant York (1941), Ball of Fire (1941), Pride of the Yankees (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Saratoga Trunk (1945), Cloak and Dagger (1946), The Fountainhead (1949; directed by King Vidor), High Noon (1952), The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955; see Mitchell, Billy), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Love in the Afternoon (1957; directed by Billy Wilder), and Man of the West (1958).

Cooper won the Academy Award for best actor twice: in 1941 for his role as the simple backwoods rifleman in Sergeant York, and in 1952 for his portrayal of the embattled frontier sheriff in High Noon, the role that demonstrated the real depths of Cooper's wordless acting and that virtually epitomized his entire career. Shortly before his death in 1961 he was honored with a special Academy Award for “his many memorable screen performances.”